Visual perception of the Earth's magnetic field and night vision in songbirds

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Henrik Mouritsen
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2006 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 18693849

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

Over the funding period, we have substantially advanced our understanding of the magnetic senses in birds. It is now clear that birds have at least two independent magnetic senses. A lightdependent magnetic compass in their eyes and a magnetic map-related sense associated with the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve. For both senses, the primary sensory molecules are currently unknown. However, for the light-dependent compass in the birds’ eyes, it is very likely that the primary sensory molecules are one or more cryptochrome proteins. In contrast, no convincing candidate molecules are known at present for the trigeminal-nerve-related map sense. In addition to the planned investigation of the magnetic senses in birds, the present funding also resulted in important new insights into polarized light-detection in night-migratory songbirds (electrophysiology manuscript described above), and led to the surprising discovery that nightmigratory European robins are sensitive to omnipresent anthropogenic electromagnetic noise down to an intensity 1000 times lower than the current WHO guideline levels. These findings provide important information about the exact biophysical nature of the underlying mechanisms and have major consequences for a number of different fields, including migratory bird conservation and potentially for human exposure limits. The published papers included four papers in Nature of which 2 directly appeared at least in part from the DFG project.

Publications

• (2009) Visual but not trigeminal mediation of magnetic compass information in a migratory bird. Nature 461, 1274-1277
  Zapka, M., Heyers, D., Hein, C. M., Engels, S., Schneider, N.-L., Hans, J., Weiler, S., Dreyer, D., Kishkinev, D., Wild, J. M. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2010) Acuity of a cryptochrome and vision-based magnetoreception system in birds. Biophysical Journal 99, 40-49
  Solov’yov, I. A. Mouritsen, H. & Schulten, K.
  
• (2010) Cryptochromes – a potential magnetoreceptor: what do we know and what do we want to know? J. Royal. Soc. Interface 7, S147-S162
  Liedvogel M. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2010) Night-migratory garden warblers can orient with their magnetic compass using the left, the right or both eyes. J. Royal. Soc. Interface 7, S227-S233
  Hein, C. M., Zapka, M., Heyers, D., Kutzschbauch, S., Schneider, N.-L. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2010) Night-time neuronal activation of Cluster N in a day- and night-migrating songbird. European Journal of Neuroscience 32, 619-624
  Zapka, M., Heyers, D., Liedvogel, M., Jarvis, E.D. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2011) Robins have a magnetic compass in both eyes. Nature 471, E11-E12
  Hein, C. M., Engels, S., Kishkinev, D. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2012) Night-Migratory Songbirds Possess a Magnetic Compass in Both Eyes. PLOS ONE 7, e43271
  Engels, S., Hein, C.M., Lefeldt, N., Prior, H. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2012) The magnetic retina: light-dependent and trigeminal magnetoreception in migratory birds. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 22, 343-352
  Mouritsen, H. & Hore, P. J.
  
• (2014) Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird. Nature 509, 353-356
  Engels, S., Schneider, N.-L., Lefeldt, N., Hein, C. M., Zapka, M., Michalik, A., Elbers, D., Kittel, A., Hore, P. J. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2014) Magnetic field-driven induction of ZENK in the trigeminal system of pigeons (Columba livia). J. Royal Soc. Interface 11, 20140777
  Lefeldt, N., Heyers, D., Schneider, N.-L., Engels, S., Elbers, D. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2015) Migratory blackcaps tested in Emlen funnels can orient at 85 but not at 88 degrees magnetic inclination. J. Exp. Biol. 218, 206-211
  Lefeldt, N., Dreyer, D., Steenken, F., Schneider, N.-L. & Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2015) Re-calibration of the magnetic compass in hand-raised European robins (Erithacus rubecula). Scientific Reports 5, 14323
  Alert, B., Michalik, A., Thiele, N., Bottesch, M., Mouritsen, H.
  
• (2016) The Neural Basis of Long-Distance Navigation in Birds. Annual Reviews in Physiology 76, 10.1-10.22
  Mouritsen, H., Heyers, D., Güntürkün, O.