Study
Environmentally induced plasticity in the hippocampus of food-caching birds
Pravosudov, Vladimir V.; Clayton, Nicola S.
Behavioral Neuroscience, 2002
Hippocampal volume and neuron number were compared between food-caching birds from harsher and milder environments, and between birds kept on limited or unlimited food, alongside spatial memory performance.
- Studied in
- Poecile atricapillus
- Sample size
- chickadees across populations and food regimes
Birds facing harsher conditions, and those on restricted food, had larger hippocampi with more neurons and performed better on spatial memory tasks. The difference was partly induced by conditions rather than fixed at birth.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Spatial memory capacity and its neural substrate respond to environmental demand within a lifetime as well as across populations.
How NatureHQ reads it
This is where memory stops being a fixed species trait. A chickadee that needs to relocate thousands of caches grows the brain region that does it, and one that does not, does not. It also gives a mechanism for the familiar claim that caching birds have extraordinary spatial memory — a claim that is true, and true for a reason that varies with where the bird lives.
- Correlational across populations; the induced component is inferred from food-regime manipulation.
- Hippocampal volume is a coarse measure of memory capacity.
- Species differ in caching strategy, so results do not transfer uniformly across caching birds.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
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Published by: Academic book publishersPublished as an academic monograph.
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