DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5r9
title: Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain Wulst-Dependent visual map learning

description: Homing pigeons rely on familiar landscape features in learning a visual
 map, which is orchestrated by the forebrain visual Wulst and hippocampus.
 Recent GPS tracking studies showed that pigeons with damage to the visual
 Wulst or hippocampus exhibited a still poorly understood, persistent
 oscillatory flight behaviour, unlike intact pigeons whose oscillations
 decrease with experience. To evaluate whether landscape heterogeneity
 influences the extent of these oscillations, we compared the flight
 behaviour of both intact and Wulst-lesioned pigeons when flying over the
 sea vs land. Regardless of treatment, pigeons exhibited less oscillatory
 flight behaviour over the homogeneous landscape of the sea. Further
 releases from familiar and unfamiliar sites tested whether oscillatory
 flight behaviour may be influenced by the level of familiarity with the
 landscape. Indeed, intact pigeons reduced their oscillatory behaviour as
 landscape familiarity increased. By contrast, Wulst-damaged pigeons
 persisted in displaying robust oscillatory flight behaviour regardless of
 the level of landscape familiarity, suggesting that previously experienced
 landscapes remained relatively unfamiliar to them. The data support the
 hypotheses that oscillatory flight behaviour reflects active visual
 scanning, most pronounced over novel, heterogeneous landscapes,
 contributing to visual map learning. Further, the data suggest a crucial
 role of the forebrain Wulst for such learning.
description: # Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight
 behaviour during forebrain Wulst-Dependent visual map learning
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5r9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qrfj6q5r9) ## Description of the data and file structure R script, GLMM model, and dataset used ### Files and variables #### File: oscillation\_pigeon\_procroysoc.R **Description:** R script **Software:** R, version 4.4.2 #### File: land\_sea\_rei.csv **Description:** dataset of the first model of the paper ##### Variables * : * id: subject identity * treatment: C (control pigeons), and W (Wulst-lesioned pigeons) * landscape: landscape overflown (sea or land) * rei: oscillatory index (computed as the ratio between the efficiency index of the original track (EI) and the efficiency index of the track obtained by computing the moving average of Latitudes and Longitudes across 40 consecutive fixes (EImm)) #### File: novelty\_familiarity\_rei.csv **Description:** dataset of the second and third models of the paper ##### Variables * : * id: subject identity * treatment: C (control pigeons), and W (Wulst-lesioned pigeons) * RS: release site: Arnaccio (AR), Asciano (AS), Livorno (LI), Secche della Meloria (ME) * exp_RS: experience from the release site from 1 to 6 (number of experimental releases from the correspondent release site (RS)). Each pigeon was subjected to one individual release from Asciano, Livorno, Secche della Meloria. Subsequently, the pigeons were subjected to six individual, repeated releases from Arnaccio. - rei: oscillatory index  (computed as the ratio between the efficiency index of the original track (EI) and the efficiency index of the track obtained by computing the moving average of Latitudes and Longitudes across 40 consecutive fixes (EImm)) - ff.ratio: ratio of fidelity fixes (fixes falling within 100 m from any fix of any previous track of the same subject over the total number of fixes, computed for each track) - ## Access information All the available, original tracks are accessible at the data archive Movebank ([www.movebank.org)](http://www.movebank.org). Cioccarelli S, Giunchi D, Casini G, Pollonara E, Bingman VP, Gagliardo A. 2025. Data from: Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain wulst-dependent visual map learning. Movebank Data Repository. [https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.337](https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.337)