![]() ![]() It’s hard to know how to assess the claim that the crows are “conscious” because consciousness is a very poorly understood concept. Dirk Schulze-Makuch, “ Crows Are Even Smarter Than We Thought” at AirSpaceMag (2021) The paper is closed access. But because they are more tightly packed, communication between the neurons seems to be better, and the overall intelligence of crows may be closer to that of Great Apes such as the gorilla. The total number of neurons in crows (about 1.5 billion) is about the same as in some monkey species. But recent research has shown that in birds, the neurons are smaller and more tightly packed, which makes sense to reduce weight and make it easier to fly. ![]() This idea had been dismissed in the past due to the small size of birds’ brains. Other studies support the notion that the bird brain can, in principle, support the development of higher intelligence. Nieder found that in crows, thinking occurs in the pallium-the layers of gray and white matter covering the upper surface of the cerebrum in vertebrates. This ability to consciously assess a problem is associated with the cerebral cortex in the brains of humans. Nieder’s experiment showed that the birds were actively evaluating how to solve a particular problem they were confronted with. Recently, some researchers have claimed that crows - already known to be smart - are even conscious: Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flipboard Print arroba Email ![]()
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