The role of lateral hypothalamic nucleus in mediating locomotive behaviors in pigeons (Columba livia)

Behav Brain Res. 2024 Mar 12:114958. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114958. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe lateral hypothalamic nucleus (LHy) is located in the dorsolateral hypothalamus of birds, and it is essential to many life processes. However, limited information is available about the role of LHy in mediating locomotive behaviors. In this work, we investigated the structure and function of LHy in pigeons (Columba livia) by Nissl staining, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, insituhybridization (ISH) staining and constant current stimulation methods. The results showed that LHy appears crescent in shape, and three-dimensional coordinate value range of LHy is: A: 5.0-8.0mm, L: 0.7-1.2mm, D: 9.5-10.3mm. The dopaminergic neurons in LHy were distributed in small amount and concentrated manner, while the glutamatergic neurons were distributed in a large number and uniform manner. The distribution of the above two neurons at each coronal level showed a significant positive correlation (R2 = 0.7516, P < 0.001). Our work demonstrated that LHy mainly mediates forward movement (P < 0.01) and ipsilateral lateral movement (P < 0.001), and these movements were significantly effected by electrical stimulation intensity. Our results showed that LHy can mediate the generation of directional behavior and this will provide technical support for the study of locomotor behavior regulation in birds.PMID:38485056 | DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114958

Source: Behavioural Brain Research - March 14, 2024 Category: Neurology Authors: Xinmao Tian Zishi Wang Yuhua Shi Chongchong Jia Xiujuan Li Mengke Li Haowei Liu Zhenlong Wang Source Type: research