“We had some clues that the liver and spleen have magnetic properties, because they break down red blood cells and so store much iron in the body,” said Dr. Clivia Lisowski, a researcher at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn.
“Iron is crystallized in oxide nanoparticles making the cells superparamagnetic and reactive to magnetic fields,” added Dr. Ulf Wiedwald, a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
“We found by far the strongest magnetic response in liver tissue.”
The authors propose that the liver macrophages, sitting in close proximity to nerve fibers, transmit geomagnetic signals to the brain via the vagus nerve — a communication pathway already known to link peripheral organs to central processing.
Rather than a single cell detecting the field, they suggest the system depends on a collective signal from many macrophages acting in concert.
The findings, if replicated, could reshape the understanding of magnetoreception well beyond pigeons.
“These findings provide the first concrete evidence of how the Earth’s magnetic field can be perceived within the body and passed on to the brain to guide movement,” Dr. Lisowski said.
— Read on www.sci.news/biology/pigeon-magnetoreception-14809.html
Leave a Reply