Verner Bingman

Research Interests

My research focuses on animal navigation and how the brain controls navigational behavior. I do so by mostly working with homing pigeons, migratory birds and whip spiders. I have a special interest in the hippocampus and its comparative organization across vertebrate groups. That interest in the hippocampus nurtures additional research into memory processes. I teach courses in ornithology and cognitive neuroscience.

Selected Publications:

Flanigan, K.A.S., Wiegmann, D.D., Hebets, E.A. and Bingman, V.P. (2021). Multisensory integration supports configural learning of a home refuge in the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus. Journal of Experimental Biology 224, p. jeb238444-jeb238444. doi: 10.1242/jeb.238444

Gagliardo, A., Pollonara, E., Casini, G., Rossino, M.G., Wikelski, M. and Bingman, V.P. (2020). Importance of the hippocampus for the learning of route fidelity in homing pigeons. Biology Letters, 16, 20200095. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0095.

Coppola, V.J. and Bingman, V.P. (2020). c-fos revealed lower hippocampal participation in older homing pigeons when challenged with a spatial memory task. Neurobiology of Aging, 87, 98-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2019.11.019

Gesicki, D.V. and Bingman, V.P. (2019). Detoured flight direction responses along the southwest coast of Lake Erie by night-migrating birds. The Auk: Ornithological Advances. https://doi.org/10.1093/auk/ukz018

Bingman, V.P., Graving, J.M., Hebets, E.A. and Wiegmann, D.D. (2017). Importance of the antenniform legs, but not vision, for homing by the neotropical whip spider, Paraphrynus laevifrons. Journal of Experimental Biology, 220, 885-890. doi:10.1242/jeb.149823

Sotelo, M.I., Daneri, M.F., Bingman, V.P. and Muzio, R.N. (2016). Telencephalic neuronal activation associated with spatial memory in the terrestrial toad, Rhinella arenarum: Participation of the medial pallium during navigation by geometry. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 88, 149-160.

Herold, C., Coppola, V.J. and Bingman, V.P. (2015). The maturation of research into the avian hippocampal formation: Recent discoveries from one of nature’s foremost navigators. Hippocampus, 25, 1193-1211. doi: 10.1002/hipo.22463

Bingman, V.P. and Cheng, K. (2005). Mechanisms of animal global navigation: Comparative perspectives and enduring challenges. Ethology, Ecology & Evolution 17: 295-318.