About this Research Topic
Birds have long been admired for remarkable capabilities such as birdsong, migration or highly developed mating systems and parental behavior. Human observers from enchanted birdwatchers and naturalists to specialists have always been fascinated, if not perplexed, by the apparent complexity of avian behaviors. Moreover, in the recent years a whole new line of investigation with an impressive number of studies has evolved, focusing on avian cognition and the underlying mechanisms. The usefulness of avian models for investigation into normal or impaired brain functions has been acknowledged for some time. Despite profound differences in neuroarchitecture, the avian brain was found to be a relevant model for understanding human cognition, particularly in certain domains such as language and speech production in songbirds, or the capacity of corvids to remember the past and plan for the future (conciousness of perspective).
The cover term ’cognitive control’ also includes here reward/utility computation, economical decision-making, as well as the behavioral control of physical investment (’physical reasoning’) such as effort, speed and vigor of both the instigation and persistence of behavior. The latter features also belong to the activational aspects of motivation, a complex process critical for survival, which itself involves multiple behavioral functions and interacting neural circuits (with special emphasis on the dopaminergic system). The term ’emotion’ is often misunderstood or misinterpreted in animal science, therefore, it would be particularly important to build any new results upon a firm basis of neural mechanisms.
In addition to phenomenological observation and comparisons, new results obtained in the field of molecular, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical correlates of avian cognition had an unquestionable impetus on related fields in mammals, including man. Suffice it to mention the role of transcriptomic changes in parental care, neuroestrogens in sexual motivation, new discoveries and fresh interpretations concerning the organization of the avian forebrain from cortex-like canonical circuits to genomic mapping.
In the current Topic, we invite contributions focusing (primarily but not exclusively) on avian cognition, motivation (both directional and activational aspects, e.g. the control of physical investment at feeding and foraging), reward and emotion. Manuscripts tackling the developmental and evolutionary aspects of the above functions are also welcome. We expect the contributors to support their findings with molecular, functional or morphological data suggesting relevant mechanisms and – whenever possible – potential linkages with normal or impaired human cognitive functions. We prefer not to encourage submission of papers which are based entirely upon behavioral observations. In addition to full research reports, brief research reports, review and opinion papers are also welcome.
The cover term ’cognitive control’ also includes here reward/utility computation, economical decision-making, as well as the behavioral control of physical investment (’physical reasoning’) such as effort, speed and vigor of both the instigation and persistence of behavior. The latter features also belong to the activational aspects of motivation, a complex process critical for survival, which itself involves multiple behavioral functions and interacting neural circuits (with special emphasis on the dopaminergic system). The term ’emotion’ is often misunderstood or misinterpreted in animal science, therefore, it would be particularly important to build any new results upon a firm basis of neural mechanisms.
In addition to phenomenological observation and comparisons, new results obtained in the field of molecular, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical correlates of avian cognition had an unquestionable impetus on related fields in mammals, including man. Suffice it to mention the role of transcriptomic changes in parental care, neuroestrogens in sexual motivation, new discoveries and fresh interpretations concerning the organization of the avian forebrain from cortex-like canonical circuits to genomic mapping.
In the current Topic, we invite contributions focusing (primarily but not exclusively) on avian cognition, motivation (both directional and activational aspects, e.g. the control of physical investment at feeding and foraging), reward and emotion. Manuscripts tackling the developmental and evolutionary aspects of the above functions are also welcome. We expect the contributors to support their findings with molecular, functional or morphological data suggesting relevant mechanisms and – whenever possible – potential linkages with normal or impaired human cognitive functions. We prefer not to encourage submission of papers which are based entirely upon behavioral observations. In addition to full research reports, brief research reports, review and opinion papers are also welcome.
Keywords: learning, reward, decision-making, basal ganglia, feeding economy
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