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的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，采用了要求受试者对刺激做出主动响应的实验范式。这一对模式物种的严苛限制，使得基于功能磁共振成像的多数感知与认知任务研究结论，本质上仅来源于两种亲缘关系极近的物种：其中猕猴不仅饲养难度大、成本高昂，训练过程也极为繁琐。然而，这类限制带来的最核心科学难题，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鸟类等类群。本研究构建了一套适配清醒家鸽的功能磁共振成像实验范式：家鸽在Go/NoGo任务范式中，需通过喙部运动对即将呈现的刺激完成辨别，以此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中的功能磁共振成像扫描与解剖结构扫描，以及用于血氧响应函数（HRF）估计的功能磁共振成像时间序列数据。在颜色辨别任务阶段，家鸽全程参与Go/NoGo范式实验。该数据集可用于解析颜色辨别任务中被激活的脑网络，同时也可为大脑抑制性神经网络的研究提供支持。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. 以及 Güntürkün O. 于2020年发表的《Event-Redrelated functional MRI in awake behaving pigeons》。