A unique brain circuit could explain why parrots are so smart Smart News

Researchers from the University of Alberta and the University of Lethbridge extracted 98 samples from the University of Lethbridge's collection of bird brains. One of the most important in the world. The brains they badyzed come from a variety of avian species, including owls, chickens and hummingbirds.

Specifically, the team wanted to know if parrots have large pontine nuclei, a neural circuit that, in humans and other primates, informs between two areas of the brain: the cortex, which governs sensory information and other higher functions, and the cerebellum that is responsible for motor functions.

" It is like a great road that is traveled, sending information between these two main areas," Cristián Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, member of the research team, [19659006] tells CBC News . Compared to other animals, humans and primates have large pontine nuclei, so this enlarged brain structure is thought to play an important role in higher intelligence.

But the results of the team, published recently in Scientific Reports show parrots and do not have large pontine nuclei. In fact, this area of ​​the brain is very small in birds, even parrots. Instead, they found that parrots had an enlarged medial spherical nucleus, or SpM. Mammals do not have this circuit, but they seem to perform a similar function in transmitting messages between the cortex and the cerebellum

"It is two to five times larger in parrots than in other birds, as chickens, "explains Gutierrez-Ibáñez. In one statement, "Independently, parrots evolved an enlarged area that connects the cortex and cerebellum, similar to primates."

The presence of large matching neural connectors in the brain of parrots and primates could explain why parrots are able to engage Parrots can, for example, open a seed using their beaks and claws, squeezing on the motor abilities and intelligence deployed by primates when they use their hands

"This is another fascinating example of" There is a convergence between parrots and primates Gutierrez-Ibáñez says, "It starts with sophisticated behaviors, such as the use of tools and self-awareness, and can also be seen in the brain." As pointed out by George Dvorsky from Gizmodo The new study raises a number of intriguing questions that researchers can not answer yet: Why, for example, do crows and crows display an advanced intelligence? when they do not seem to have an enlarged medial spiral core? And how exactly does the SpM work?

"This could be a great way to study how the Pontic-like process occurs in humans," notes Gutierrez-Ibáñez in the statement. "It could give us a way to better understand how our human brains work."