Cognition and the brain of brood parasitic cowbirds  

作　　者：David F.SHERRY Mélanie F.GUIGUENO 

机构地区：[1]Department of Psychology,Western University London,Ontario [2]Department of Natural Resource Sciences,McGill University,Montreal,Quebec,Canada

出　　处：《Integrative Zoology》2019年第2期145-157,共13页整合动物学（英文版）

摘　　要：Cowbirds are brood parasites.Females lay their eggs in the nests of other species,which then incubate the cow­bird eggs and raise the young cowbirds.Finding and returning to heterospecific nests presents cowbirds with several cognitive challenges.In some species,such as brown-headed cowbirds(Molothrus ater),females but not males search for and remember the locations of potential host nests.We describe recent research on sex dif­ferences in cognition and the hippocampus associated with this sex difference in search for host nests.Female brown-headed cowbirds perform better than males on some,but not all,tests of spatial memory and females show a pattern of adult hippocampal neurogenesis not found in males or in closely related non-parasitic birds.Because of the apparent specialization of the hippocampus,brown-headed cowbirds may be a good model in which to examine spatial information processing in the avian hippocampus and we also describe recent research on the spatial response properties of brown-headed cowbird hippocampal neurons.

关 键 词：adult neurogenesis brood parasites COWBIRDS HIPPOCAMPUS sex differences spatial memory 

分 类 号：Q95[生物学—动物学]