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动物的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，采用了要求受试对象对刺激做出主动响应的实验范式。这种对模式物种的严苛限制，意味着基于功能磁共振成像的多数感知与认知任务研究结论，本质上仅来自两种亲缘关系极近的物种；其中猕猴不仅饲养难度高、成本高昂，训练过程也极为繁琐。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，尤其是亲缘关系极为疏远的类群，例如鸟类。我们构建了一套功能磁共振成像实验范式：在该范式中，清醒状态的家鸽对即将出现的刺激进行颜色辨别，并通过喙部运动来表达对刺激的接受或排斥。本数据集包含颜色辨别实验中的功能磁共振成像与解剖结构扫描数据，以及用于血氧响应函数（Hemodynamic Response Function, HRF）估计的功能磁共振成像时间序列数据。在颜色辨别任务中，家鸽需完成去/不去范式任务。该数据集可用于评估颜色辨别过程中激活的脑网络，同时也可用于探究抑制性脑网络的活动特征。

更多详细信息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. 与 Güntürkün O. 于2020年发表的《清醒行为家鸽的事件相关功能磁共振成像》。