ePoster

Decoding visual processing in pigeon pallium

Wei Lin Seah
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Wei Lin Seah

Abstract

Pigeons exhibit superior visual capabilities compared to humans, with enhanced luminance and colour discrimination, and visual acuity supported by more than double the axon count in their optic nerves despite their much smaller size. A growing body of behavioural evidence suggests that many birds, including pigeons, can perform abstract visual categorisation and concept formation, once thought exclusive to humans and other primates. The evolutionary divergence of avian and human brains occurred more than 300 million years ago, raising the intriguing question of how equivalent levels of visual processing sophistication can be achieved through distinct neural configurations. Exploring the differences and similarities between avian and human brains may shed light on the necessary and sufficient factors for higher visual processes. To investigate this, electrophysiological recordings were performed using 256-channel electrode arrays, acutely implanted in the pallium of awake pigeons targeting regions associated with higher visual processing, such as the entopallium. Concurrently, stimulation of the visual field was delivered in the form of square dots on a monitor. Electrode data were spike-sorted using a MATLAB package (KiloSort) to identify neurons and manual curation was performed using a Python GUI (Phy). Preliminary analysis reveals two primary groups of neurons with distinct visual field responses and the ratio between these two groups significantly differed between hemispheres. These findings are in line with the two known visual pathways (thalamofugal and tectofugal), and the brain lateralisation in pigeons respectively.

Unique ID: fens-24/decoding-visual-processing-pigeon-pallium-e3663ecf