Artículos de revistas
Extracellular recordings reveal absence of magneto sensitive units in the avian optic tectum
Fecha
2014Registro en:
Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, Volumen 200, Issue 12, 2018, Pages 983-996
14321351
03407594
10.1007/s00359-014-0947-6
Autor
Ramírez, Edgardo
Marín, Gonzalo
Mpodozis Marín, Jorge
Letelier, Juan Carlos
Institución
Resumen
© 2014, The Author(s).There is a consensus that birds detect the earth’s magnetic field and use some of its features for orientation and homing purposes. Since the late 1960s, when the first solid behavioral evidence of magnetoreception was obtained, much research has been devoted to describing the ethological aspects of this behavior. The neurophysiological basis of magnetoreception has been much less studied, although a frequently cited 1986 report described a high prevalence (70 %) of magneto-sensitive neurons in the pigeon optic tectum with high signal-to-noise ratios (Semm and Demaine, J Comp Physiol A 159:619–625, 1986). Here, we repeated these neurophysiological experiments using anesthetized as well as awake pigeons and new recording techniques. Our data indicate that magneto-sensitive units do not exist in the avian tectum.