Coastal Studies Scholar Diane Lee on Amazing Bird Brains Nov. 20

Story posted November 16, 2009

Neuroethologist Diane Lee, who studies the neurobiology of animal cognition in the wild, will give a talk titled "The Amazing Chickadee Brain: Stem Cells and Adult Neurogenesis" at 12:30 p.m. Friday, November 20, 2009, in Main Lounge, Moulton Union.

If someone calls you a birdbrain, you should take it as a compliment.

Bird brains are more remarkable than we might think, and we can see examples of birds' abilities in our own backyards.

Set out a few seeds and watch a chickadee pick them up hurriedly in his beak and fly off a short distance, only to hide them in various holes he will diligently dig in your lawn or trees. If you watch long enough you may even spot him "sneak" back to his cache of seeds, retrieve them from their clever hiding places, and nibble away.

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What you may not realize is that this chickadee has probably hidden hundreds of seeds in hundreds of locations all over yours and your neighbors' yards only to remember where each seed is hidden and retrieve them days, weeks, or even months later. Given that human beings have difficulty remembering where we parked our cars just half an hour ago, this is no small accomplishment for these tiny birdbrains.

How is this remarkable feat accomplished? Food-storing birds such as our backyard chickadees, bluejays, crows, magpies, nutcrackers, and nuthatches have evolved a brain capable of responding to seasonal memory demands by activating stem cells that give birth to new neurons in the hippocampus—a brain structure essential for processing memories. Although initial studies investigating the ability of the brain of many animals to show neurogenesis began as long as 30 years ago, work with these amazing birdbrains has revitalized interest in looking into the ways in which the brain actually "grows" and forms new neurons in response to season, changes in the complexity of their environments, and memory formation.

Research such as this may prove to be a vital link in understanding how the brain may actually repair and/or replenish itself and aid in our attempts to prevent deterioration due to age, disease, or physical injury.

Diane Lee is an associate professor at the University of California–Long Beach, and is the Coastal Studies Scholar at Bowdoin College this fall, teaching an advanced seminar in behavioral neuroscience.

Lee's interests lie at the convergence of the psychology of learning, ethology, and neuroscience. That is, she investigates how animals have evolved to use higher order learning skills to solve ecologically meaningful tasks. She studies food-storing (caching) birds, their behavior in the wild and laboratory, and the neuroanatomy of the brain structures involved.

Lee's Bowdoin talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Environmental Studies Program at 207-725-3396.

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