Crows outpace humans and monkeys in decision-making speed

Carrion crows have been shown to make visual decisions twice as fast as humans and monkeys while maintaining accuracy, according to new research from the University of Tübingen. In experiments, two crows identified the direction of moving dot patterns on a touchscreen in an average of just 235 milliseconds, demonstrating rapid cognitive processing in avian brains.

The study, led by Philipp Schmidbauer and professor Andreas Nieder at the Institute of Neurobiology, required the birds to determine whether dots were predominantly moving left or right. The crows pecked corresponding targets on the screen, achieving near-perfect accuracy when patterns were clear and better-than-random choices even when patterns were difficult to discern.

Researchers recorded neural activity in the nidopallium caudolaterale, a brain region in birds analogous to the primate prefrontal cortex. They found that neuronal signals began differentiating motion directions as early as 70 milliseconds after stimulus presentation, long before the crows made their selections. Neural activity steadily increased until it reached a decision threshold, at which point the birds responded.

The findings suggest that avian brains implement decision-making processes similar to those in primates, despite lacking a layered cerebral cortex. The speed advantage may reflect evolutionary pressures for rapid visual processing in birds, which rely on quick responses for flight maneuvers and foraging. Further research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms behind this temporal efficiency.