Shining a light on embryonic development of the brain
Nature Communications
2012년2월29일
The ability of birds to integrate information learnt separately from each half of their brain depends on the experiences of the embryo, reports a paper published in Nature Communications this week. Specialization of the brain, where the left and right hemispheres perform different functions, is thought to have evolutionary advantages, however, hemispheric cooperation is also important for optimal information processing. Martina Manns and Juliane Roemling studied hemispheric cooperation in birds - who have a visual system that develops asymmetrically in the brain in response to light stimulation. By presenting the right or left eye of the birds with different colour pairings, they show that they are able to integrate information learnt separately by the right or left hemisphere to solve a difficult puzzle. They note that the efficiency of cooperation between the two hemispheres depends on the development of this specialization, based on the experiences of the embryo. For example, when the embryos were kept in the dark, they could not discriminate between colour pairings that required the combination of information learnt separately from each eye / hemisphere, in contrast to embryos grown in light. These findings further our understanding of how the brain has evolved to perform different tasks.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms1699
리서치 하이라이트
-
6월29일
COVID-19: Assessing instances of long COVID in UK health dataNature Communications
-
6월24일
Sport science: New wearable sensor to measure neck strain may detect potential concussionScientific Reports
-
6월23일
Scientific community: Women credited less than men in scientific paper authorshipNature
-
6월17일
Health technology: New cost-effective smartphone test for middle ear functionCommunications Medicine
-
6월16일
An exercise-inducible molecule that suppresses appetiteNature
-
6월16일
Cancer: Signatures of structural genomic variation in cancerNature