functional MRI data of actively discriminating pigeons

Until now, only fMRI studies with humans and non-human primates employed paradigms in which subjects had to actively respond to a stimulus. This extreme restriction on the side of model species implies that fMRI-based insights on most perceptual and cognitive tasks essentially stem from two closely related species of which macaques are difficult and expensive to house as well as laborious to train. The most important scientific problem of this restriction is, however, the difficulty to transfer results to most other vertebrates, especially very distantly related ones like birds. We established an fMRI paradigm in which awake pigeons discriminated in a Go/NoGo paradigm to upcoming stimuli with a beak movement to signal their acceptance or rejection of the stimulus. This dataset contains fMRI and anatomical scans during color discrimination experiment and fMRI time-series for HRF estimation. During color discrimination, pigeons were involved in a Go/NoGo paradigm. The dataset can be used to assess the activated brain networks during color discrimination. It also allows for the investigation of inhibitory networks. More details can be found in the related publication: Behroozi M., Helluy X., Ströckens F., Meng G., Pusch R., Tabrik S., Tegenthoff M., Otto T., Axmacher N., Kumsta R., Moser D., Genc E., and Güntürkün O. Event-Related functional MRI in awake behaving pigeons.(2020)

迄今为止，仅针对人类与非人灵长类开展的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，均采用了要求受试对象对刺激做出主动响应的实验范式。这一对模式物种的极端限制意味着，基于fMRI获得的绝大多数感知与认知任务相关结论，本质上仅来自两个亲缘关系极近的物种——其中猕猴不仅饲养难度高、成本高昂，训练过程也极为耗时费力。然而，这一限制带来的最核心科学问题在于，难以将研究结果推广至绝大多数其他脊椎动物，尤其是亲缘关系极远的类群如鸟类。本研究建立了一套Go/NoGo型fMRI实验范式：清醒状态下的家鸽可通过喙部运动对即将呈现的刺激进行辨别，以动作信号表达对该刺激的接受或拒绝。本数据集包含颜色辨别实验过程中的fMRI扫描与解剖扫描数据，以及用于血氧水平依赖响应函数（HRF，Hemodynamic Response Function）估计的fMRI时间序列数据。在颜色辨别任务中，家鸽全程参与该Go/NoGo范式实验。该数据集可用于分析颜色辨别任务过程中激活的脑网络，同时也可用于探究大脑的抑制性神经网络。更多细节可参阅相关发表文献：Behroozi M., Helluy X., Ströckens F., Meng G., Pusch R., Tabrik S., Tegenthoff M., Otto T., Axmacher N., Kumsta R., Moser D., Genc E., and Güntürkün O. Event-Related functional MRI in awake behaving pigeons (2020)