Is activity pattern reflected in the relative size of visual pathways in owls (Aves: Strigiformes)?
-
1
University Of Alberta, Centre for Neuroscience, Canada
-
2
University of Lethbridge, Department of Neuroscience, Canada
-
3
University of Alberta, Department of Psychology, Canada
Although they are usually regarded as nocturnal, owls exhibit a wide range of activity patterns, from strictly nocturnal, to crepuscular or cathemeral, to strictly diurnal. Several studies have shown that these differences in the activity pattern are reflected in differences in eye morphology and retinal organization. Despite the evidence that differences in activity pattern among owl species are reflected in the peripheral visual system, there has been no attempt to correlate these differences with changes in the visual regions in the brain. In this study we compare the relative size of nuclei in the main visual pathways in nine species of owls that exhibit a wide range of activity patterns. We found marked differences in the relative size of all visual structures among the species studied, both in the tectofugal and the thalamofugal pathway, as well in other retinorecipient nuclei, including the nucleus lentiformis mesencephali, the nucleus of the basal optic root and the nucleus geniculatus lateralis, pars ventralis. We show that the barn owl (Tyto alba), a species widely used in the study of the integration of visual and auditory processing, has reduced visual pathways compared to strigid owls. Our results also suggest there could be a trade-off between the relative size of visual pathways and auditory pathways, similar to the situation previously reported in mammals. Finally, our results show there is no relationship between activity pattern and the relative size of either the tectofugal or the thalamofugal pathway. Instead, our results show there is a positive correlation between the relative size of both visual pathways and the relative number of cells in the retinal ganglion layer.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Catherine Carr, Healesville Sanctuary and the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation for providing us with specimens for our study and David Graham for editorial help. Funding for this study was provided by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) to ANI and DRW.
Keywords:
bird,
Eye,
optic tectum,
retinal ganglion cell,
tectofugal,
thalamofugal,
wulst
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster (but consider for student poster award)
Topic:
Anatomy and Neuroanatomy
Citation:
Gutierrez-Ibanez
C,
Iwaniuk
AN,
Lisney
TJ and
Wylie
DR
(2012). Is activity pattern reflected in the relative size of visual pathways in owls (Aves: Strigiformes)?.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00450
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
04 Jul 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Cristian Gutierrez-Ibanez, University Of Alberta, Centre for Neuroscience, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada, cagutier@ualberta.ca