DOI: 10.5061/dryad.xwdbrv1jq
title: Data from: Topography of inputs into the hippocampal formation of a food-caching bird

description: The mammalian hippocampal formation (HF) is organized into domains
 associated with different functions. These differences are driven in part
 by the pattern of input along the hippocampal long axis, such as visual
 input to the septal hippocampus and amygdalar input to temporal
 hippocampus. HF is also organized along the transverse axis, with
 different patterns of neural activity in the hippocampus and the
 entorhinal cortex. In some birds, a similar organization has been observed
 along both of these axes. However, it is not known what role inputs play
 in this organization. We used retrograde tracing to map inputs into HF of
 a food-caching bird, the black-capped chickadee. We first compared two
 locations along the transverse axis: the hippocampus and the dorsolateral
 hippocampal area (DL), which is analogous to the entorhinal cortex. We
 found that pallial regions predominantly targeted DL, while some
 subcortical regions like the lateral hypothalamus (LHy) preferentially
 targeted the hippocampus. We then examined the hippocampal long axis and
 found that almost all inputs were topographic along this direction. For
 example, the anterior hippocampus was preferentially innervated by
 thalamic regions, while posterior hippocampus received more amygdalar
 input. Some of the topographies we found bear resemblance to those
 described in the mammalian brain, revealing a remarkable anatomical
 similarity of phylogenetically distant animals. More generally, our work
 establishes the pattern of inputs to HF in chickadees. Some of these
 patterns may be unique to chickadees, laying the groundwork for studying
 the anatomical basis of these birds’ exceptional hippocampal memory.
description: Data for 'Topography of inputs into the hippocampal formation of a
 food-caching bird', Applegate, M.C.; Gutnichenko, K.S.; Aronov, D.
 The data is contained in a matlab data structure 'anatomy.m',
 which opens a matlab data structure anatomy. This structure has 4 fields
 to it: Bird: an identifier for the birds used in the study. pallialLabel:
 a boolean variable that is true if the bird ID had pallial regions
 annotated, false otherwise. nonpallialLabel: a boolean variable that is
 true if the bird ID had nonpallial regions annotated, false otherwise.
 data: a data structure with 8 fields. Each row contains information about
 a retrogradely labelled cell: ROI: the 'region of interest
 (ROI)' for the cell. This field uses the same abbreviations for
 regions as the main paper. These are: HD (hyperpallium densocellulare),NFL
 (fronto-lateral nidopallium),NIL\_M (lateral intermediate nidopallium,
 medial portion),NIL\_L (lateral intermediate nidopallium, lateral
 portion),MS (medial septum),NDB (nucleus of the diagonal band of
 Broca),TnA (nucleus taeniae),SPC (nucleus superficialis parvocellularis),
 DLM (nucleus dorsolateralis anterior thalami, pars medialis), PMI (nucleus
 paramedianus interni thalami), SRt (nucleus subrotundus), LHy (lateral
 hypothalamus), VTA (ventral tegmental area), LC (nucleus linearis
 caudalis, LoC (locus coeruleus). Long, Transverse, Hemisphere. These
 specify the long axis coordinate (-1, 1, 3, or 5 A), the transverse axis
 coordinate (Hp or DL), and the hemisphere (R, L) of the injection.
 wavelength: These specify the flurophore of CTB used in the injection
 (488, 555, or 647). AP, ML, DV. These specify in stereotaxic coordinates
 the location of the cell, all units are in mm. AP coordinates are anterior
 (+) or posterior (-) to lambda. ML coordinates are defined to be positive
 in the ipsilateral hemisphere to the injection, and negative in the
 contralateral hemisphere.