Abstract
New neuronal recruitment in an adult animal’s brain is presumed to contribute to brain plasticity and increase the animal’s ability to contend with new and changing environments. During long-distance migration, birds migrating greater distances are exposed to more diverse spatial information. Thus, we hypothesized that greater migration distance in birds would correlate with the recruitment of new neurons into the brain regions involved with migratory navigation. We tested this hypothesis on two Palearctic migrants - reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) and turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur), caught in Israel while returning from Africa in spring and summer. Birds were injected with a neuronal birth marker and later inspected for new neurons in brain regions known to play a role in navigation - the hippocampus and nidopallium caudolateral. We calculated the migration distance of each individual by matching feather isotopic values (δ2H and δ13C) to winter base-maps of these isotopes in Africa. Our findings suggest a positive correlation between migration distance and new neuronal recruitment in two brain regions - the hippocampus in reed warblers and nidopallium caudolateral in turtle doves. This multidisciplinary approach provides new insights into the ability of the avian brain to adapt to different migration challenges.
Highlights
Transmitters and satellite or GPS tracking to monitor individual birds[20]
When exploring links between migration distance and new neuronal recruitment in turtle doves we found marginally significant increase in recruitment into the nidopallium caudolateral (NCL) for birds flying longer distances (P = 0.07; ρ = 0.53; N = 12; Fig. 1), but not in the Hippocampal complex (HC) (P = 0.96; ρ = − 0.01; N = 11)
In this work we found a tentative link between the migration distance of two bird species and new neuronal requirement into the brain regions that play a role in spatial orientation and navigation
Summary
Transmitters and satellite or GPS tracking to monitor individual birds[20]. Recently, the use of stable isotopes has been shown to be effective in quantifying individual or population migratory connectivity[21,22]. When a bird is caught later, its feathers’ 2H/H and 13C/12C ratios can be non-lethally analyzed and compared to known H and C isotopic distribution base-maps (e.g. isoscapes). This tissue-to-isoscape comparison is used to obtain estimates of the region where a bird had molted or grown its feathers. In this study we hypothesized a possible link between an increase in new neuronal recruitment and the distances traveled by migrant birds We explored this phenomenon in reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) and turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur), which are summer visitors in Israel and winter and molt in Africa[25]. New neuronal recruitment was evaluated in two brain regions known to take part in navigation and spatial orientation tasks-the Hippocampal complex (HC)[26,27], and the nidopallium caudolateral (NCL)[27]
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