Functional Causality Analysis Of Hp And NCL In Goal-directed Behavior Of Pigeon

The hippocampus and the nidopallium caudolaterale are crucial for goal-directed behavior of Pigeon,but the functional causality between them in navigation is currently unclear.In this thesis,focusing on the functional causality between Hp and NCL in goal-oriented decision process,complex network theory and technology are used.We use the cross-maze turning behavioral experiment paradigm which is driven by food rewards to record the local field potential signal of Hp and NCL.The time-frequency response characteristics of LFP signals in the Hp and NCL in turning behavior and the topological characteristics of the functional network are compared and analyzed.The response time windows and response frequency bands related to pigeon turning behavior are determined in this thesis.On this basis,the causal function network between these two brain regions is constructed and the causal flows of different nodes in the network are calculated,thus determining their functional causality.The results of this study have positive significance for the analysis of the cooperative information processing mechanism between multiple brain regions of other species under the goal-oriented behavior.The works completed in this thesis and the specific research results are summarized as follows:(1)The LFP functional networks in the Hp and NCL in the turning behavior are constructed.By analyzing their topological characteristics,the response bands and time windows of the two brain regions are determined,that is to say,the gamma band of the LFP signal after turning contains turning information.Based on the gamma-band LFP signal,the neuron functional networks of the turning area and the waiting area are constructed by using the synchronous likelihood algorithm.The results of their topological characteristics analysis indicate that there is a significant difference between them.Then,the sliding time window is used to further analyze the dynamic characteristics of the network in the turning behavior.It is found that the network topological characteristics significantly increase after the turning.This result lays the foundation for the following research on the functional causality between Hp and NCL.(2)Causal networks are used to study the functional causality between Hp and NCL in goal-directed behavior.The results indicate that the turning information of the goal-directed behavior flows from Hp to NCL,and its causality is not related to the specific turning direction.The Hp-NCL causal function networks in the waiting area,turning area,before turning and after turning are constructed.Through comparative analysis of their topological characteristics,it is found that there are functional interactions between the two brain regions in goal-directed behavior.In this thesis,the Hp-NCL causality function network is further constructed using the partial directed coherence algorithm.Based on the analysis of the causal flow of each node,the functional causality between the two brain regions is obtained,and it is found that the NCL area information is strongly influenced by the Hp area during the turning.This result has an exploratory significance for the analysis of the mechanism of the hippocampus-nidopallium caudolaterale lobe pathway in the goal-directed behavior of birds.