Calling someone a birdbrain might actually be a compliment. New cognition research suggests that bird brains are actually more efficient than our significantly larger mammalian brains.
Researchers said the latest findings may finally reveal why some birds like ravens and parrots, found to be smarter than most mammals, are equally as clever as apes despite having much smaller brains.
In the past, scientists thought that birds were only "smart" in specific situations like gathering food. However, newer research reveals that bird intelligence is actually more versatile and complex than previously thought. Like apes, some birds can think logically, recognize themselves in the mirror and empathize with others, according to new research out of Germany's Ruhr University Bochum.
There are many obvious structural differences between bird and mammal brains, but the minds of both animal families are strikingly similar. Unlike mammals, birds do not have a multilayered cerebral cortex to use for cognition. Instead, they use something similar called the pallium. After taking a closer look at the anatomy of bird brains, researchers found new similarities between bird and ape brains. Lead researcher Onur Güntürkün and his team found that the brains of birds and apes are actually very similar on a cellular level. While they may contain very different structures, closer examination reveals that both contain a prefrontal brain structure and similar wiring.
"Assumptions on the neural basis of cognition usually focus on cortical mechanisms. Birds have no cortex, but recent studies in parrots and corvids show that their cognitive skills are on par with primates," Güntürkün and his team wrote in the study.
"These cognitive findings are accompanied by neurobiological discoveries that reveal avian and mammalian forebrains are homologous, and show similarities in connectivity and function down to the cellular level," they added. "But because birds have a large pallium, but no cortex, a specific cortical architecture cannot be a requirement for advanced cognitive skills. During the long parallel evolution of mammals and birds, several neural mechanisms for cognition and complex behaviors may have converged despite an overall forebrain organization that is otherwise vastly different."
"What is clear is that the multilayered mammalian cortex is not required for complex cognition," concludes Güntürkün. "The absolute brain weight is not relevant for mental abilities, either."
The findings were published by the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
