Spatial memory and hippocampus in aves

Abstract

The avian hippocampus, that locates in the posterior part of dorsomedial telencephalon, is considered to be a mammalian hippocampus homologue. The studies of connection, distribution of transmitters, and development of the avian hippocampus all support the homology. Food storing birds have large capacity of spatial memory and have a big hippocampus in comparison to non-storing species. The food-storing birds do not have good memory in general but have good memory specialized to the spatial tasks. The correlation between the volume of the hippocampus and behavior other than food storing but needs spatial memory is also suggested. The hippocampal damages cause deficits in spatial learning especially those using a maze but do not impair non-spatial learning tasks. These studies suggest that the avian hippocampus share a similar function with the mammalian hippocampus, especially that of rodents.