Vision, Brain, and Behavior in Birds: (A Bradford Book)

The visual capacities of birds rival even those of primates, and their visual system probably reflects the operation of a ground plan common to all vertebrates. This book provides the first comprehensive and current review of considerable progress made over the past decade in analyzing neural and behavioural mechanisms mediating visually guided behaviour in birds. The book's five major sections deal with the visual world of birds, the organization of avian visual systems, the development and plasticity of visual structure and function, visuomotor control mechanisms, and cognitive processes. The introduction to each section discusses the nature and significance of the problem areas, providing a context for the chapters to follow, which review the current status of research on a specific problem. The contributors are an international assemblage of researchers, representing a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ornithology to neurophysiology and including ethology, experimental psychology, anatomy and developmental neurobiology. For the ethologist, avian behaviour is the source of a wide variety of species-typical "fixed action patterns"; for the experimental psychologist, birds are the subject of choice for studies of conditioning, learning and cognitive processes; for the neurobiologist they provide model systems for studying developmental processes, sensory mechanisms, orientation, and motor control. For these reasons, research on the avian brain and behaviour occupies an increasingly important place in contemporary behavioural biology.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 The avian eye view: introduction, Sally A. McFadden; producing the image, Graham R. Martin; exploring the image, Hans-Ortwin Nalbach et al; constructing the three-dimensional image, Sally A. McFadden; the visual capabilities of birds, William Hodos; colour vision of birds, Francisco J. Varela et al. Part 2 Functional anatomy of the avian visual system: introduction, Onur Gunturkun; the avian visual system and the evolution of the neocortex, Toru Shimizu and Harvey J. Karten; anatomy of the avian thalamofugal pathway, Onur Gunturkun et al; the organization of the tectofugal pathway in birds - a comparative review, Jurgen Engelage and Hans-Joachim Bischof; binocular processing in frontal-eyed birds, G. Casini et al. Part 3 Development of the avian visual system: introduction, Hans-Joachim Bischof; developmental anatomy of the chick retinotectal projection, Jorg Mey and Solon Thanos; development, plasticity, and differential organization of parallel processing of visual information in birds, G. Fontanesi et al; development of the tectofugal visual system of normal and deprived zebra finches, Kathrin Herrmann and Hans-Joachim Bischof; developmental mechanisms of lateralization, Lesley J. Rogers and Patrice Adret. Part 4 Visuomotor mechanisms: introduction, H. Philip Zeigler; eye movements, head movements, and gaze stabilization in birds, Josh Wallman and Juan-Carlos Letelier; sensorimotor mechanisms and pecking in the pigeon, H. Philip Zeigler et al; control of pecking response topography by stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer contingencies, Robert W. Allan; visual mechanisms of prey capture in water birds, Gadi Katzir. Part 5 Vision and cognition: introduction, Jacky Emmerton; lateralization and strategies of viewing in the domestic chick, R.J. Andrew and M. Dharmaretnam; two eyes and one world - studies of interocular and intraocular transfer in birds, Monika Remy and Shigeru Watanabe; what can we learn from experiments on pigeon concept discrimination?, Shigeru Watanabe et al; beyond sensation - visual cognition in pigeons, Jacky Emmerton and Juan D. Delius; vision, cognition, and the avian hippocampus, Verner P. Bingman.

About the Author :
Hans-Joachim Bischof is Professor of Behavioral Physiology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. H. Philip Zeigler is Professor of Biopsychology at Hunter College, City University of New York.