Key facts
- Crows made decisions in an average of 235 milliseconds.
- Monkeys took 410-600 milliseconds to complete similar tasks.
- Crows maintained accuracy comparable to monkeys and humans.
- Neuronal activity showed evidence accumulation in crow brains.
- Higher body temperature and smaller neuron size contribute to bird speed.
A study by Andreas Nieder and Philipp Schmidbauer at the University of Tübingen investigated how avian brains process visual information and make decisions. Using a random-dot-motion task, they found that carrion crows can process visual information and commit to a decision in an average of 235 milliseconds, significantly faster than the 410-600 milliseconds typically observed in primates for similar tasks. Despite their speed, the crows maintained accuracy comparable to monkeys and humans. The researchers recorded neuronal activity in the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL), the avian equivalent of the primate prefrontal cortex, and observed evidence accumulation similar to that seen in mammals.