Event-related functional MRI of awake behaving pigeons at 7T

Mehdi Behroozi (), Xavier Helluy, Felix Ströckens, Meng Gao, Roland Pusch, Sepideh Tabrik, Martin Tegenthoff, Tobias Otto, Nikolai Axmacher, Robert Kumsta, Dirk Moser, Erhan Genc and Onur Güntürkün ()
Additional contact information
Mehdi Behroozi: Ruhr University Bochum
Xavier Helluy: Ruhr University Bochum
Felix Ströckens: Ruhr University Bochum
Meng Gao: Ruhr University Bochum
Roland Pusch: Ruhr University Bochum
Sepideh Tabrik: Ruhr University Bochum
Martin Tegenthoff: Ruhr University Bochum
Tobias Otto: Ruhr University Bochum
Nikolai Axmacher: Ruhr University Bochum
Robert Kumsta: Ruhr University Bochum
Dirk Moser: Ruhr University Bochum
Erhan Genc: Ruhr University Bochum
Onur Güntürkün: Ruhr University Bochum

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Animal-fMRI is a powerful method to understand neural mechanisms of cognition, but it remains a major challenge to scan actively participating small animals under low-stress conditions. Here, we present an event-related functional MRI platform in awake pigeons using single-shot RARE fMRI to investigate the neural fundaments for visually-guided decision making. We established a head-fixated Go/NoGo paradigm, which the animals quickly learned under low-stress conditions. The animals were motivated by water reward and behavior was assessed by logging mandibulations during the fMRI experiment with close to zero motion artifacts over hundreds of repeats. To achieve optimal results, we characterized the species-specific hemodynamic response function. As a proof-of-principle, we run a color discrimination task and discovered differential neural networks for Go-, NoGo-, and response execution-phases. Our findings open the door to visualize the neural fundaments of perceptual and cognitive functions in birds—a vertebrate class of which some clades are cognitively on par with primates.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18437-1

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18437-1

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