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Lateralization of magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird

Abstract

Lateralization of brain functions, once believed to be a human characteristic, has now been found to be widespread among vertebrates1,2,3. In birds, asymmetries of visual functions are well studied, with each hemisphere being specialized for different tasks4,5,6,7,8. Here we report lateralized functions of the birds' visual system associated with magnetoperception, resulting in an extreme asymmetry of sensing the direction of the magnetic field. We found that captive migrants tested in cages with the magnetic field as the only available orientation cue were well oriented in their appropriate migratory direction when using their right eye only, but failed to show a significant directional preference when using their left eye. This implies that magnetoreception for compass orientation, assumed to take place in the eyes alongside the visual processes9,10,11, is strongly lateralized, with a marked dominance of the right eye/left brain hemisphere.

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Figure 1: A robin ready for monocular testing.
Figure 2: Orientation behaviour under monochromatic green light with the magnetic field as the only cue.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. We thank K. Dutine, F. Eich, F. Schmidt and A. Wittekindt for their help with conducting the experiments.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Wiltschko.

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Wiltschko, W., Traudt, J., Güntürkün, O. et al. Lateralization of magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird. Nature 419, 467–470 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00958

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