Long-term memory for a life on the move
AUTOR(ES)
Mettke-Hofmann, Claudia
FONTE
The National Academy of Sciences
RESUMO
Evidence is accumulating that cognitive abilities are shaped by the specific ecological conditions to which animals are exposed. Long-distance migratory birds may provide a striking example of this. Field observations have shown that, at least in some species, a substantial proportion of individuals return to the same breeding, wintering, and stopover sites in successive years. This observation suggests that migrants have evolved special cognitive abilities that enable them to accomplish these feats. Here we show that memory of a particular feeding site persisted for at least 12 months in a long-distance migrant, whereas a closely related nonmigrant could remember such a site for only 2 weeks. Thus, it seems that the migratory lifestyle has influenced the learning and memorizing capacities of migratory birds. These results build a bridge between field observations suggesting special memorization feats of migratory birds and previous neuroanatomical results from the same two species indicating an increase in relative hippocampal size from the first to the second year of life in the migrant but not in the nonmigrant.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=156292Documentos Relacionados
- A Biochemical Blueprint for Long-Term Memory
- Homosynaptic long-term depression: A mechanism for memory?
- Notch is required for long-term memory in Drosophila
- Studies of retrograde memory: A long-term view
- Deficient long-term memory and long-lasting long-term potentiation in mice with a targeted deletion of neurotrophin-4 gene