Meeting Abstract

64.3  Thursday, Jan. 6  Hippocampal neurogenesis is associated with migratory behavior in adult but not juvenile sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys ssp.) LADAGE, Lara D*; ROTH, Timothy C; PRAVOSUDOV, Vladimir V; University of Nevada, Reno; University of Nevada, Reno; University of Nevada, Reno lladage@unr.edu

It has been hypothesized that individuals who have higher demands for spatially-based behaviors should show increases in hippocampal attributes. Some avian species have been shown to use a spatially-based representation of their environment during migration. Further, differences in hippocampal attributes have been shown between migratory and non-migratory species as well as between individuals with and without migratory experience (juveniles vs. adults). We tested whether migratory behavior might also be associated with increased hippocampal neurogenesis, and whether potential differences track previously reported differences in hippocampal attributes between a migratory (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii) and non-migratory subspecies (Z. l. nuttalli) of white-crowned sparrows. We found that non-migratory adults had relatively fewer numbers of immature hippocampal neurons than adult migratory and juvenile non-migratory birds, while adult non-migrants had a lower density of new hippocampal neurons than adult and juvenile migratory birds and juvenile non-migratory birds. Our results suggest that neurogenesis decreases with age, as juveniles, regardless of migratory status, exhibit similar and higher levels of neurogenesis than non-migratory adults. However, our results also suggest that adult migrants may either seasonally increase or maintain neurogenesis levels comparable to those found in juveniles. Our results thus suggest that lack of migratory behavior may be associated with decreased neurogenesis in non-migratory adults and the differential production of new neurons may be the mechanism underpinning changes in the hippocampal architecture between adult migratory and non-migratory birds.