As of: March 12, 2024, 7:30 a.m
By: Lara-Sabrina Kiehl
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Small, but impressive: bird brains have developed ingeniously.
After decades, researchers are getting closer to solving the mystery of the principles of intelligence.
Birds are more intelligent than previously thought, according to a recently published study by the Ruhr University Bochum.
The research sheds new light on the principles of intelligence and shows that birds possess amazing cognitive abilities that were previously attributed to mammals.
Since the end of the 19th century, researchers have actually agreed that high intelligence requires the high computing capacity of large brains.
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How are they so smart despite their small brains?
The study reveals that parrots and corvids can not only plan for the future, but also form social strategies, recognize themselves in the mirror and even build tools.
These abilities put the feathered animals on a par with chimpanzees.
Even supposedly less talented birds like pigeons surprise people by learning orthographic rules and being able to recognize typos in short words.
In addition, they are able to classify images according to categories such as “Impressionism”, “Water” or “Man-made”.
Read here when it is forbidden to remove a pigeon nest on the balcony.
Will these two ravens make a plan for the future?
According to a study, they can.
© Reiner Bernhardt/Imago
The Bochum neuroscientists behind the study emphasize that birds have significantly more nerve cells in their small brains than previously thought.
Corvids in particular have impressive computing capacity in the cognitively crucial areas of the brain.
Their specialized brain structure is similar to the prefrontal cortex of mammals, a key region for abstraction and planning.
In Sweden, birds have a completely different ability: There, crows are said to be flying garbage collectors, disposing of cigarette butts.
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Bird brains have evolved differently but highly intelligently
One of the big questions that has plagued science for over a century has been why birds are so intelligent despite their small brains and lack of a cortex-like structure.
The research results of the Bochum scientists now provide some answers.
Another study has found that crows can even be smarter than monkeys.
The study shows that birds and mammals independently developed four similar innovations for intelligence.
First, birds have more nerve cells than expected.
Second, they have a specialized brain structure similar to the prefrontal cortex.
Third, birds and mammals use a dopamine-based system to evaluate the quality of their decisions and adjust their computational processes.
Fourth, both groups have similar working memory, which allows them to retain information in the short term.
These neural features, the study suggests, evolved independently in birds and mammals and may be among the fundamental brain mechanisms that enable cognitive performance.
The findings not only help to solve the mystery of bird intelligence, but also shed light on general neurobiological principles of intelligence.
The study is published in the scientific journal
“Trends in Cognitive Science”
.
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