Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain Wulst-Dependent visual map learning

Homing pigeons rely on familiar landscape features in learning a visual map, which is orchestrated by the forebrain visual Wulst and hippocampus. Recent GPS tracking studies showed that pigeons with damage to the visual Wulst or hippocampus exhibited a still poorly understood, persistent oscillatory flight behaviour, unlike intact pigeons whose oscillations decrease with experience. To evaluate whether landscape heterogeneity influences the extent of these oscillations, we compared the flight behaviour of both intact and Wulst-lesioned pigeons when flying over the sea vs land. Regardless of treatment, pigeons exhibited less oscillatory flight behaviour over the homogeneous landscape of the sea. Further releases from familiar and unfamiliar sites tested whether oscillatory flight behaviour may be influenced by the level of familiarity with the landscape. Indeed, intact pigeons reduced their oscillatory behaviour as landscape familiarity increased. By contrast, Wulst-damaged pigeons persi..., , , # Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain Wulst-Dependent visual map learning

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5r9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5r9)

## Description of the data and file structure

R script, GLMM model, and dataset used

### Files and variables

#### File: oscillation\_pigeon\_procroysoc.R

**Description:** R script

**Software:** R, version 4.4.2

#### File: land\_sea\_rei.csv

**Description:** dataset of the first model of the paper

##### Variables

* :
* id: subject identity
* treatment: C (control pigeons), and W (Wulst-lesioned pigeons)
* landscape: landscape overflown (sea or land)
* rei: oscillatory index (computed as the ratio between the efficiency index of the original track (EI) and the efficiency index of the track obtained by computing the moving average of Latitudes and Longitudes across 40 consecutive fixes (EImm))

#### File: novelty\_familiarity\_rei.csv

**Description:** dataset of the ...