Why Are Crows So Smart? The Intelligence of Crow’s Brain and Reasoning Abilities

KOMPAS.com – Crows are very intelligent animals. They can use tools to get what they want.

For example, New Caledonian crows, on an island in the South Pacific, shape twigs into hooks to catch grubs from rotting logs.

Crows can also use their complex brains to find creative solutions. So, why are crows so smart?

The crow’s brain is full of neurons

The crow’s ability to think about a problem and find a solution may be due to the crow’s brain having many brain cells that process information.

This trait does not only appear in humans, but also in non-human primates. A study published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology in January 2022 that compared the brains of corvids (including crows) with those of chickens, pigeons, and ostriches found that corvid brains have denser neurons, which allows for efficient communication between brain cells.

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According to 2017 research published in Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, the intelligence of crows is at least on par with that of some monkeys, and in fact, may approach that of great apes (such as gorillas).

Reasoning abilities from evolution

In a 2020 study, scientists put crows through a series of confusing tasks.

In this study, the researchers wanted to measure neural activity in different types of neurons with the goal of tracking how crows feel and think through their work.

Researchers sought to study a particular type of thinking, called sensory awareness, and they singled out birds, in particular, as representatives of a branching point in the evolutionary tree of life.

As a result, the researchers wrote that sensory awareness is the ability to have subjective experiences that can be “explicitly accessed and reported,” and that it originates in the brain that has evolved over time.

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Consciousness is associated, primarily, with the cerebral cortex of primates. Meanwhile, according to researchers, bird brains are different because they diverged from the mammalian lineage 320 million years ago.

Ravens also have a fascinating way of asserting their sensory awareness, which scientists in a 2020 study suggested could mean a “neural correlate of consciousness,” at least since birds and mammals last shared that part of the brain.

In an analysis in Science, another researcher, Suzana Herculano-Houzel of Vanderbilt University, criticized the study’s hypothesis.

The structures being studied, he says, can resemble other structures because their physical properties are more than just coevolution or indications of very early consciousness. In this case, the size of the structure is also very important.

But, nevertheless, crows have very intelligent bird brains.

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2023-11-04 08:30:00
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