Neural Basis of Numerical Ability in Crows Identified

 Neuroscience  

The intelligence of crows is an interesting topic as they diverged from humans in evolutionary time so long ago. New study data suggests that the way the birds code numerical information is a superior solution to a common computational problem.

M any old tales claim that crows have the ability to count. In one version, three hunters go into a blind situated near a field where watchful crows roam. They wait, but the crows refuse to move into shooting range. One hunter leaves the blind, but the crows won’t appear. The second hunter leaves the blind, but the crows still won’t budge. Only when the third hunter leaves, the crows realize that the danger has passed and they go back to their normal feeding activity.

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Helen Ditz and Professor Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen have established the neuronal basis of this numerical ability in crows. The researchers trained crows to discriminate groups of dots. During testing, the team recorded the responses of individual neurons in an integrative area of the crow endbrain.

"This discovery shows that the ability to deal with abstract numerical concepts can be traced back to individual nerve cells in corvids."

This area also receives inputs from the eyes. It was found that the neurons ignore the dots’ size, shape and arrangement and only extract their number. Each cell’s response peaks at its respective preferred number.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and provides valuable insights into the biological roots of counting capabilities.

“When a crow looks at three dots, grains or hunters, single neurons recognize the groups’ ‘threeness’ “, says researcher Ditz. “This discovery shows that the ability to deal with abstract numerical concepts can be traced back to individual nerve cells in corvids.”

What makes this finding even more interesting is the fact that a long evolutionary history separates humans from birds. Due to the shear amount of time involved, the brains of crows and humans have evolved very differently.

“Surprisingly, we find the very same representation for numbers as we have previously discovered in the primate cortex,” Nieder says. “It seems as if corvids and primates with independently und distinctively developed endbrains have found the same solution to process numbers.” Even abstract behavior which we think of as sophisticated mental feats ultimately has biological roots.


SOURCE  Neuroscience News

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