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Hippocampal formation is required for geometric navigation in pigeons
Author(s) -
Vargas Juan Pedro,
Petruso Edward J.,
Bingman Verner P.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
european journal of neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.346
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1460-9568
pISSN - 0953-816X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2004.03654.x
Subject(s) - hippocampal formation , artificial intelligence , encode , homing (biology) , representation (politics) , computer science , computer vision , feature (linguistics) , geometric shape , pattern recognition (psychology) , communication , psychology , neuroscience , mathematics , biology , geometry , ecology , biochemistry , linguistics , philosophy , politics , political science , law , gene
The geometric properties of bounded space have attracted considerable attention as a source of spatial information that can guide goal navigation. Although the use of geometric information to navigate has been observed in every species studied to date, the neural mechanisms that support the representation of geometric information are still debated. With the purpose of investigating this topic, we trained pigeons with lesion to the hippocampal formation to search for food in a rectangular‐shaped arena containing one wall of a different color that served as the only distinctive environmental feature. Although lesioned pigeons learned the task even faster than control animals, probe trials showed that they were insensitive to geometric information. Control animals could encode and use both geometric and feature information to locate the goal. By contrast, lesioned pigeons relied exclusively on the feature information provided by the wall of a different color. The results indicate that the avian hippocampal formation is critical for learning the geometric properties of space in homing pigeons.