by Justin Jackson, Phys.org

edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

 Editors’ notesCredit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

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.

Many animals rely on vision to trigger recall for where food is hidden or to chart a course toward distant goals. Place cells in the hippocampus form the neural basis for such spatial memory, firing when an animal enters a specific location.

Earlier studies in primates found some hippocampal activity linked to where the eyes were directed, though recordings typically involved stationary animals.

Freely tracking eye movements during active behavior poses persistent technical obstacles as common laboratory models, such as rodents, lack precise gaze control. Researchers have not previously resolved how hippocampal place coding connects to the act of visually searching locations from afar.

In the study, “Remote activation of place codes by gaze in a highly visual animal,” published in Nature, researchers designed experiments to investigate whether hippocampal place cells in black-capped chickadees activate during visual fixation on distant spatial targets.

Eight black-capped chickadees participated in the experiments, which took place in a 61-centimeter arena containing five identical sites equipped with perches, light cues and motorized feeders.

Researchers adapted a multi-camera tracking system that triangulated infrared-reflective markers on each bird’s head to record head position during free movement.

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A separate dual-camera video-oculography system estimated the pupillary axis by capturing corneal reflections, enabling calibration of eye-in-head orientation. Gaze direction was determined primarily by head orientation because chickadees exhibit minimal independent eye movement.

Birds performed a discrete visual search task in which a light cue signaled the rewarded site after a random delay, and a closed-loop version where the cue activated only when the bird gazed at the correct target. Silicon probes implanted in the anterior hippocampus recorded neural activity.

Recordings from 1,929 excitatory hippocampal neurons showed that 62% were tuned to the bird’s location during navigation and 57% responded to gaze direction during stationary visual search.

Among neurons classified as place-tuned, 75% also exhibited significant gaze tuning (changes in firing rate when the bird fixated on different target sites). Preferred locations for place and gaze responses overlapped in 95% of cells with strong selectivity. Contralateral (opposite-side) gaze accounted for most of the tuning, with neurons firing when the eye opposite the recording hemisphere fixated on a target.

Neural responses during fast head movements (called head saccades) displayed a biphasic pattern: an early component emerged before the bird’s gaze landed on the preferred target, and a later component corresponded to visual input.

Inhibitory interneurons clustered into two groups with firing phases roughly 180 degrees apart, creating a quasiperiodic oscillation linked to head saccades.

Results indicate that hippocampal activity encodes a combination of prediction and sensory response tied to where the bird directs visual attention. Findings suggest that saccadic head movements synchronize memory-related neural activity multiple times per second.

Researchers conclude that place coding and gaze coding form a unified process through which the hippocampus represents locations relevant to the animal at each moment. Such representations allow both the formation of spatial memories when a bird visits a site and the recall of those memories from afar upon return.

George Warthen

Your Turn

• Florida’s black bear population has rebounded from a few hundred to over 4,000, necessitating proactive management.
• FWC proposes a regulated bear hunt to control population growth, balancing it with available habitat.
• The proposed hunt would be limited by permits and focused on specific zones within the largest bear subpopulations.

When I think of what makes Florida an amazing place to live, I think of its wildness. From the cypress swamps in the south to the pinelands of the Panhandle, it’s a place like no other. Moments of early-morning quiet in a deer stand are some of my favorites to recall. I’m sure many of you have your own.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has an awesome responsibility to conserve the unmistakable identity that makes Florida so special. I am honored to be a small part of that effort alongside our amazing staff, who are among the best in the world at what they do.

Part of that responsibility is ensuring that Floridians and wildlife can all share this place now and into the foreseeable future. Science and experience tell us it’s sometimes best to solve looming problems before they become a greater challenge down the road.

The Florida black bear has come back from numbering just a few hundred decades ago to more than 4,000 bears today. It’s a conservation success story by any measure. We divide the population into seven groups, called subpopulations, and the four largest are all growing. None shows evidence of decline.

Population growth is good news for bears and the ecological systems they occupy, but wildlife managers need to keep an eye on the future. Bears have expanded their occupied range from 17% to 51% of the state since 1992, and while we have enough habitat to support them now, we expect that to change in the future as both the bear and human populations continue to grow.Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

In May, FWC commissioners voted to move forward with a final vote in August on reopening an annual bear hunt in Florida. Nearly every state or province in North America with resident black bear populations has regulated bear hunting, and Florida has the most black bears of the six states without it. In fact, Florida has more black bears than many states that have ongoing regulated bear hunts.

Our proposed hunt would start to slow population growth in strategic areas around the state, balancing species population growth with suitable habitat to maintain a healthy population. The number of bears that could be harvested would be set conservatively each year and would equal the number of permits that could be issued through a random drawing, ensuring the harvest objective is not exceeded.

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Bear Hunting Zones would be established within the four largest subpopulations’ ranges, including the East Panhandle. The East Panhandle BHZ would encompass all or parts of Bay, Washington, Jackson, Calhoun, Gulf, Franklin, Liberty, Gadsden, Leon, Wakulla and Jefferson counties. It would also include Apalachicola Wildlife Management Area, which would have its own hunting regulations.

The current East Panhandle subpopulation estimate is 1,060, with an annual growth rate of 11.9%, and 68 permits would be issued to hunt in that entire zone in 2025.

Hunting is an effective tool for managing wildlife populations around the world and is a key part of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. This model is based on the idea that wildlife is a public resource, and with that shared ownership comes the responsibility to manage it using science-based decisions.

Hunting provides access to the resource, allowing hunters to use the meat, pelt, fat and other parts of any bear they harvest. The funds generated by permit sales would then be reinvested back into conservation. It addresses a need and benefits are created for everyone.

Human-bear conflicts will still need to be managed independently—hunting doesn’t accomplish that. Educating the public on preventative steps like securing attractants on their property or using bear-resistant trash cans will remain vital to reducing conflicts.

Hunting is about helping bears succeed over the long term in our state. It’s a way for us to guide an iconic Florida species into the future, for their benefit and ours.