Researchers at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University discovered that hippocampal place cells in black-capped chickadees fire when the bird merely gazes at a distant location, revealing a unified spatial memory process driven by vision.



Summary

Columbia University researchers found that chickadee brain cells, typically associated with spatial memory (hippocampal place cells), activate simply when the birds look at distant locations. This challenges the understanding of these cells as being solely triggered by physical movement. Instead, the study suggests vision plays a crucial, and potentially independent, role in activating these place cells, indicating a unified visual spatial memory process in the chickadee brain. The findings shed light on how birds create spatial maps of their environment, driven by what they see.

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