The Relationship Between Reliance on Food Caching, Spatial Memory and the Hippocampus - An Intraspecific Comparison

对食物缓存的依赖、空间记忆和海马体之间的关系——种内比较

• 批准号: 0615021
• 负责人: Vladimir Pravosudov
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Board of Regents, NSHE, obo University of Nevada, Reno
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0615021&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Relationship; Between; Reliance; Food; Caching; Relationship; Between; Reliance; Food; Caching

Food-storing birds rely on their food caches to survive winters and use spatial memory for successful food recovery. Both theoretical and empirical studies suggest that energetically demanding ecological conditions should result in more intensive food caching. Thus, environmental conditions that place higher demands on spatial memory and the hippocampus result in enhanced spatial memory and an enlarged hippocampus with more neurons will be investigated. A comparative method and a common garden experiment will be used to test a prediction that black-capped chickadees in northern populations have evolved enhanced spatial memory and an enlarged hippocampus with more neurons. First, hippocampal structure in black-capped chickadees from twelve populations along a latitudinal gradient will be compared. Theoretical models also suggest that more caching along with successful cache recovery should significantly increase the probability of survival in birds specifically when environmental conditions are more energetically demanding and unpredictable like those in northern locations. Therefore chickadees living in more northern environments should depend on caches more heavily because of harsher winter conditions, and thus should experience higher demands for spatial memory than their more southern conspecifics. To determine whether differences in memory and the hippocampus between northern and southern chickadees have evolved, a common garden experiment in which northern and southern black-capped chickadees taken from nests and hand-raised under identical laboratory conditions will be conducted to test two predictions from the adaptive specialization hypothesis: (1) individuals in northern populations should have a relatively larger hippocampus with more neurons and higher cell proliferation rates; and (2) these differences between northern and southern populations have evolved as a result of greater selection pressure on memory and the hippocampus and thus they have a genetic basis. Studying the relationship between environment, memory and the hippocampus in birds will advance our understanding of the evolution of memory and the brain. The proposed activity will provide interdisciplinary research training to one postdoctoral associate, to 2-3 undergraduate students and to 1-2 interns from a community college per year. Every effort will be made to recruit candidates for these positions from underrepresented groups in the biological sciences. The results of the study will be presented at national and international meetings, and published in peer-reviewed journals. Results and rationale of the proposed study will made available to a broader audience through a freely accessible web site, publications in popular media, presentations at local community colleges and through teaching undergraduate classes. All processed brain tissue will be used in teaching undergraduate and graduate students. The proposed study is interdisciplinary and it will bolster integration between the fields of behavioral ecology, neurobiology, and endocrinology.

食品存储的鸟类依靠其食物缓存来生存冬季，并使用空间记忆成功地恢复食物。 理论和实证研究都表明，精力充沛的生态条件应导致更密集的食物缓存。 因此，将研究对空间记忆和海马需求提高需求的环境条件，从而提高空间记忆力增强，并将研究更多神经元的海马增大。 一种比较方法和常见的花园实验将用于测试一个预测，即北部人群中的黑色山雀已经进化出增强的空间记忆，并带有更多神经元的海马。 首先，将比较沿纬度梯度的十二人群的黑色山雀的海马结构。 理论模型还表明，更多的缓存以及成功的缓存恢复应显着提高鸟类在鸟类中的生存概率，特别是当环境条件在北部地区像北部地区的环境条件更加精力苛刻和无法预测时。 因此，生活在更北部环境中的山雀应该由于更严重的冬季条件而更严重地依赖缓存，因此，对空间记忆的需求应该比其更南方的同种特异性更高。 为了确定北部和南部山雀之间的记忆和海马的差异是否进化，一个常见的园艺实验，在该实验中，北部和南部的黑色鸡皮从巢中取出并在相同的实验室条件下进行手工饲养，以测试从适应性专业化的相同实验室条件下进行的两个预测：（1）与北部人口相关的较高元素，以及更高的ne型neifif in nenosif in nenofif infif in nenofif inforif in nenofif seprif seprif。 （2）由于记忆和海马的选择压力更大，北部和南部人口之间的这些差异已经发展，因此它们具有遗传基础。 研究鸟类环境，记忆和海马之间的关系将促进我们对记忆和大脑进化的理解。 拟议的活动将为一位博士后同事，2-3名本科生提供跨学科的研究培训，并为每年社区学院的1-2个实习生提供。将尽一切努力从生物科学中代表性不足的群体中招募候选人。 该研究的结果将在国家和国际会议上介绍，并在同行评审期刊上发表。拟议的研究的结果和理由将通过可自由访问的网站，流行媒体的出版物，当地社区学院的演讲以及通过教学本科课程提供给更广泛的受众。所有处理过的脑组织都将用于教学本科生和研究生。拟议的研究是跨学科的，它将在行为生态学，神经生物学和内分泌学领域之间加强整合。