"Let There be Light!" pigeon eggs are regularly exposed to light during breeding

Behavioural Processes
Jens-Uwe F BuschmannO Güntürkün

Abstract

Light stimulation before hatching initiates the emergence of avian visual lateralisation. Since several studies show that birds benefit from being lateralised, we can conjecture that their clutch is being exposed to light during breeding. We tested this assumption in pigeons with a semi-natural setup where the animals were systematically recorded using a movement detection system throughout their breeding period. The results show that pigeon pairs perform their relieves in a regular way by abandoning their clutch for a mean of about 55 s at approximately every 43 min. Thus, the developing visual pathways are repetitively stimulated by light for cumulatively over 3h before the breeding period ends. It becomes apparent that both the duration as well as the repetitions of light stimulation play a crucial role in the onset of visual asymmetry.

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Citations

Jan 21, 2009·Experimental Brain Research·Martina Manns, Onur Güntürkün
Dec 10, 2008·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·S M SchaafsmaT G G Groothuis
Nov 5, 2015·The European Journal of Neuroscience·Felix Ströckens, Onur Güntürkün
Oct 10, 2009·Behavioural Processes·Luigi BaciadonnaLuca Tommasi
Feb 24, 2010·Social Neuroscience·Jonathan Niall DaisleyLucia Regolin

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