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Night-vision brain area in migratory songbirds

2005; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 102; Issue: 23 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.0409575102

1091-6490

Henrik Mouritsen, Gesa Feenders, Miriam Liedvogel, Kazuhiro Wada, Erich D. Jarvis,

Bat Biology and Ecology Studies

Twice each year, millions of night-migratory songbirds migrate thousands of kilometers. To find their way, they must process and integrate spatiotemporal information from a variety of cues including the Earth's magnetic field and the night-time starry sky. By using sensory-driven gene expression, we discovered that night-migratory songbirds possess a tight cluster of brain regions highly active only during night vision. This cluster, here named “cluster N,” is located at the dorsal surface of the brain and is adjacent to a known visual pathway. In contrast, neuronal activation of cluster N was not increased in nonmigratory birds during the night, and it disappeared in migrants when both eyes were covered. We suggest that in night-migratory songbirds cluster N is involved in enhanced night vision, and that it could be integrating vision-mediated magnetic and/or star compass information for night-time navigation. Our findings thus represent an anatomical and functional demonstration of a specific night-vision brain area.