What does the avian hippocampus encode?
The hippocampus is believed to be involved in memorizing whatever information our attention is focussed on. In rats this leads to the phenomenon of place cells (cells that encode the rat’s position in space). In birds, the prediction is that the hippocampus would encode the position in space of relevant stimuli around the animal. In order to test this hypothesis, we are collaborating with a laboratory at the Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany), who have worked out a way to record from awake pigeons while they are being presented with visual stimuli. You would spend a large proportion of your year in Germany, recording single units from the pigeon hippocampus. This project would train you in single unit electrophysiology from awake animals. 3. Do hoarding birds have a better memory than non-hoarding birds? In this study, you will test the memory performance of coal tits (hoarders) and blue and great tits (non-hoarders) IN THE FIELD. This project requires a student who has at least a C p
