Studies in owls show that, as in V, the Wulst is retinotopically organized and neurons are tuned to spatial frequency and orientation.In addition, the majority of cells inside the Wulst have receptive fields located within the location of binocular overlap.Most cells (about ) are binocular, and sensitive to retinal disparity (Pettigrew and Konishi, Pettigrew, , ; Porciatti et al Wagner and Frost, Nieder and Wagner, ,).Binocular neurons are present inside the Wulst of other species, however they usually are not as many as they are in owls (Pettigrew, Wilson, Denton, Michael et alFrontiers in Neuroscience www.frontiersin.orgAugust Volume ArticleWylie et al.Evolution of sensory systems in birds).Together, this suggests that certainly one of the primary functions from the visual Wulst is always to mediate binocular vision andor stereopsis.In assistance of this hypothesis, Iwaniuk and Wylie showed that an enlarged visual Wulst seems to have evolved in concert with binocular vision in other nocturnal birds also.Both the OwletNightjars (genus Aegotheles) and frogmouths (genus Podargus) are thought to possess Glyoxalase I inhibitor Inhibitor stereopsis (Pettigrew,) and have big places of binocular overlap rivaling that from the owls (Pettigrew and Konishi, Wallman and Pettigrew, Martin et al a).The Wulst can also be rather huge in these birds, showing a equivalent degree of hypertrophy as noticed in owls (Figures A,B,D) (Iwaniuk and Wylie, Iwaniuk et al), including a prominent pattern of lamination.The closely associated nightjars and potoos (genus Nyctibius) usually do not share thisWulst hypertrophy and have a significantly narrower binocular visual field (Martin et al a,b).The relationship between the size on the Wulst and degree of binocular vision appears to hold beyond these birds with a massive degree PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2153027 of binocular overlap.Applying a information set including distinct species, Iwaniuk et al. examined the partnership in between the size from the Wulst and binocular vision utilizing orbit orientation as a proxy for binocular overlap (Figure E).The relative size on the Wulst was considerably correlated with orbit orientation (Figure E), but relative TeO size was not.While these a number of lines of proof indicate that the Wulst is enlarged in species to help binocular vision and worldwide stereopsis, there are some clear exceptions.The oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) features a huge binocular overlap (Pettigrew and Konishi,FIGURE Hypertrophy of your nucleus lentiformis mesencephalic (LM) in hummingbirds.(A,B) Photomicrographs displaying the location and borders of LM in coronal sections to get a hummingbird (Forktailed woodnymph, Thalurania furcate) and a songbird (Eastern yellow robin, Eopsaltria australis).Despite the fact that the brain of the songbird is considerably bigger than that of the hummingbird, they share a comparable LM volume.(C) Shows a scatter plot of the relative size of LM as a function of brain minus LM volume (log transformed).The hummingbirds are indicated by the graycircles along with other birds by the white circles.The strong line indicates the least squares linear regression line for all species.(D) Bar graph on the relative size of LM expressed as a percentage of total brain volume.The strong line indicates the imply for all nonhummingbirds and also the error bars indicate the regular deviations.TeO, optic tectum; LPC, nucleus laminaris precommissuralis; nRt, nucleus rotundus; Glv, lateral geniculate nucleus, ventral leaflet; SOp, stratum opticum.Scale bars .mm (adapted from Iwaniuk and Wylie,).Frontiers in Neuroscience www.frontiersin.orgAugust Volume ArticleWylie et.