Journal
CURRENT BIOLOGY
Volume 21, Issue 5, Pages 418-423Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.01.058
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [DC007618]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Many animals use the Earth's geomagnetic field for orientation and navigation, but the neural mechanisms underlying that ability remain enigmatic [1, 2]. Support for at least two avian magnetoreceptors exists, including magnetically activated photochemicals in the retina [3, 4] and ferrimagnetic particles in the beak [5, 6]. The possibility of a third magnetoreceptor in the inner ear lagena organs has been suggested [7]. The brain must process magnetic receptor information to derive constructs representing directional heading and geosurface location. Here, we used the c-Fos transcription factor, a marker for activated neurons [8], to discover where in the brain computations related to a specific set of magnetic field stimulations occur. We found that neural activations in discrete brain loci known to be involved in orientation, spatial memory, and navigation may constitute a major magnetoreception pathway in birds. We also found, through ablation studies, that much of the observed pathway appears to receive magnetic information from the pigeon lagena receptor organs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available