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Review
. 2020 Sep 7;10(9):617.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci10090617.

The Role of Hp-NCL Network in Goal-Directed Routing Information Encoding of Bird: A Review

Mengmeng Li  1   2 , Zhigang Shang  1   2   3   4 , Kun Zhao  1   2 , Shuguan Cheng  1   2 , Hong Wan  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Hp-NCL Network in Goal-Directed Routing Information Encoding of Bird: A Review

Mengmeng Li et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Goal-directed navigation is a crucial behavior for the survival of animals, especially for the birds having extraordinary spatial navigation ability. In the studies of the neural mechanism of the goal-directed behavior, especially involving the information encoding mechanism of the route, the hippocampus (Hp) and nidopallium caudalle (NCL) of the avian brain are the famous regions that play important roles. Therefore, they have been widely concerned and a series of studies surrounding them have increased our understandings of the navigation mechanism of birds in recent years. In this paper, we focus on the studies of the information encoding mechanism of the route in the avian goal-directed behavior. We first summarize and introduce the related studies on the role of the Hp and NCL for goal-directed behavior comprehensively. Furthermore, we review the related cooperative interaction studies about the Hp-NCL local network and other relevant brain regions supporting the goal-directed routing information encoding. Finally, we summarize the current situation and prospect the existing important questions in this field. We hope this paper can spark fresh thinking for the following research on routing information encoding mechanism of birds.

Keywords: Hp; NCL; bird; goal-directed; route information encoding.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The developments on the role of the avian Hp-NCL local network in goal-directed navigation route information encoding. Hp: hippocampus, NCL: nidopallium caudalle.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Avian Hp-NCL network performs goal-directed navigation to the nest via coordinated interactions. Hp: hippocampus, NCL: nidopallium caudalle.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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