Identification Of The Brain Locomotor Regions And Artificial Control Of Behaviors In Freely Moving Pigeons

The micro air vehicle(MAV) in disaster search and rescue, military reconnaissance, site delivery and environmental monitoring and other fields has important application prospects. The traditional mechanical aircraft lags far behind pigeons in stability, environmental adaptation, and encounters technical bottleneck in energy supply. Pigeons can be an ideal animal for the study of flying robot, not only because it has sustained flying ability in three-dimension space, nimbly response, load-bearing and good orienting abilities, but also because it has superiority in motion concealment, obstacle avoidance, and a complete autonomous intelligent in the fight against environment interference, etc.In order to develop a pigeon robot, the first key issue is to understand and recognize the mechanism of motion control in pigeons. For this purpose, we tried to overcome the key technical problems in the research of animal robot, and then implanted electrodes in the specific sites of pigeon’s brain. Starting from raising pigeons, this paper conducted a basic research on the identification and location of movement-related brain nuclei(area), and achieved artificial regulation of some motor behaviors with a micro wireless stimulator in conscious freely moving pigeons. The main contents and research findings are as follows:Developing a head holder which match the stereotaxic instrument to ensure stable and accurate repetitive position of pigeon’s brain. The method of general anesthesia combined with local anesthesia was first used in pigeon’s brain surgery after a comprehensive analysis of the different anesthetics principles. Experiments showed that this method had effectively blocked the afferent transmission of pain from operative areas while reducing inhibitory effect on the central nervous system from general anesthesia, which greatly reduced the pain on pigeons caused by surgical trauma. Thereby settling the anesthesia-related problems successfully presented in the brain function research and the chronic electrodes implantation procedure in pigeons. Designing and building a standard loft for breeding homing pigeons, and establishing a sound feeding, releasing, disease prevention and control measures to ensure smooth conduct of the research.By craniotomy in anesthetized pigeons, micro-electrical stimulation investigation on posterior cerebrum, diencephalon, and brainstem areas initially identified the brain distribution of motion control area, and established the appropriate stimulation parameters. Effects on the response with different stimulation patterns(voltage/current, uni/bi-directional square pulse) were also explored. Application of prussian blue color reaction identified the neuroanatomical localization of motor nuclei(area): Flapping was evoked in the medial part of the formatio reticularis lateralis mesencephalic(FRL), the nucleus intercollicularis(ICo), and the medulla locus coeruleus(Loc); Lateral body movement was elicited primarily in the formatio reticularis medialis mesencephalic(FRM), and the nucleus vestibularis lateralis(Ve L); Cooing was induced from the torus semicircularis(To S), and the lateral part of nucleus intercollicularis(ICo).Investigating pigeon’s skull morphology and its bone structural characteristics, we designed and developed an electrode adapter which can be used in birds’ chronic brain functional research. Double fixation way was introduced, making the service life of electrodes 3 times than before. This established the foundation for long-term investigation of brain regions.By stimulating the brain areas related to motor function via the micro wireless stimulation system, we achieved artificial regulation of pigeon’s mainly motor behaviour(taking-off, turning(left/right), moving forward, etc.) in freely moving test.The study of spatial distribution characteristics of motor-related brain nuclei(area) and movement control is an important content of neural science, and also the foundation of the pigeon robot research. This work will provide new knowledge in autonomous intelligence, biomimetic flying robot and birds’ locomotion induction.