Black crows can make visual choices twice as fast as humans and primates without sacrificing accuracy, according to biologists at the University of Tübingen, infohub.kz reports.
In the experiment, the researchers showed the birds clusters of moving white dots on a touchscreen. The crows had to determine which way most of the objects were moving — left or right — and peck the corresponding target on the monitor. On average, the birds needed 235 milliseconds to make a decision, less than a quarter of a second.
When the dots moved in a clear direction, the birds picked the correct answer almost 100 percent of the time. Even in difficult tests with chaotic motion, their results remained above chance.
The study's authors examined the activity of individual neurons in a brain structure in birds called the nidopallium. This region performs functions similar to the prefrontal cortex in mammals and is responsible for processing information and selecting actions. The recordings showed that the crow's brain begins to distinguish the direction of motion just 70 milliseconds after the image appears.
As the brain analyzes what it has seen, nerve cell activity rises steadily until it reaches the threshold needed to perform an action. Birds lack the layered cerebral cortex found in humans or apes, yet the basic principles of decision-making in their brains turned out to be similar.
The researchers attribute the ultra-fast reaction to the demands of life in the wild. Birds need to assess their surroundings instantly while maneuvering at high flight speeds and to aim their beaks precisely when foraging, although the exact mechanisms behind such rapid data processing have yet to be uncovered.