Encoding of geometric and landmark information in the left and right hemispheres of the avian brain

Chicks were trained binocularly to find food buried under sawdust in the ce nter of a square enclosure. When tested in an enclosure made larger or smal ler in size binocular and left-eyed chicks searched mainly on the basis of relative distance of the food from the enclosure walls. Whereas right-eyed chicks searched on the basis of absolute distance. Moreover. binocular and left-eyed chicks relied mainly oil global spatial information (i.e.. distan ces front the walls), whereas right-eyed chicks also used information provi ded by Visual landmarks. These results suggest that the right hemisphere of the avian brain fed most by the left eyed is primarily concerned with enco ding of relational spatial information. Whereas, the left hemisphere (fed m ainly by the right eye) is concerned with absolute metric information. poss ibly as part of an encoding strategy based primarily on local (both spatial and nonspatial) cues.