Kenneth Glad
We like to think of ourselves as the smartest creatures in the room. Evolution gave us big brains to solve complex problems. Yet, when it comes to raw processing speed, a common backyard bird leaves us in the dust.
Researchers at the University of Tübingen recently set up a visual test. They wanted to see how quickly animals could process information.
Two carrion crows took part in the experiment, which was published in Science. They had to look at moving dots on a screen and figure out which way the patterns were going.
The results were staggering. These birds made their choice in just 235 milliseconds, which is twice as fast as humans or monkeys.
Hitting the mark
They were not just guessing. The birds had to peck a target to show their answer.
“Even when the patterns of motion were hard to recognize, the crows’ decisions were still better than random choices,” Philipp Schmidbauer told Phys.
He noted that obvious movement made things even easier. As Schmidbauer explained to the outlet, “and with clear signals, they achieved an accuracy of nearly 100%.”
Inside the brain
To understand this speed, the team looked closely at brain activity. They focused on a specific bird brain area that works like the human prefrontal cortex.
Brain signals started changing just 70 milliseconds after the dots appeared. It happened long before the crows actually physically moved to give their answer.
Professor Andreas Nieder told Phys that the underlying process is familiar. “These findings show that neuronal dynamics in the avian brain are consistent with established models of decision-making in humans and nonhuman primates,” he said.
Built for survival
Birds lack the layered brain structure found in apes. Despite missing those distinct layers, their unique neural wiring manages to handle the exact same tasks in half the time.
This speed likely comes down to survival. Flying requires split-second reactions to avoid branches, catch prey, and land safely.
“Birds rely on their vision to carry out precise, rapid maneuvers during flight and to guide their beaks toward objects when foraging,” Nieder explained to the publication.
