We ’re not the only ones who can swap back and forth between two undertaking rapidly when completing a line of work . Nope , pigeons are just as quick , ( I know , right ? ) . It gets even more interesting , as new research inCurrent Biologysays they can really complete tasks given to them 250 milliseconds faster than humans .
Study author Dr Sara Letzner and Professor Onur Güntürkün from Ruhr - Universität Bochum convey the work by giving the accurate same behavioural mental test to 12 birds and 15 humans .
Both grouping were move over a commission to complete two unlike job . During the first part of the study the volunteers had to stop a current task and change to another task as quickly as potential . The 2nd practice session , however , had a 300 - millisecond setback between the first and second labor .
During the first exercise , humans and pigeons performed equally as well . During the second case , the pigeons were 250 milliseconds quicker than their human vis-a-vis .
The scientists had a possibility for this result : The pigeons ' small Einstein are thickly packed with nerve cells , which means the sign in all likelihood trip quicker between nerve cell .
" investigator in the orbit of cognitive neuroscience have been wondering for a long prison term how it was possible that some birds , such as brag or parrot , are smart enough to match chimpanzees in terms of cognitive abilities , despite their little brains and their lack of a cortex , " says Letzner in astatement .
" The outcome of the current study furnish a partial solution to this closed book : It is precisely because of their small brainiac that is densely packed with face cells that fowl are able-bodied to dilute the processing time in tasks that ask rapid fundamental interaction between different groups of neurons . ”
Letzner added : " For a foresighted time , scientist used to believe the mammalian cerebral cortex to be the anatomical case of cognitive power ; it is made up of six cortical layers . " However , when we ’re talking about doll , this type of structure does n’t exist at all .
However , pigeons do have six fourth dimension as many mettle cells per cubic millimeter of brain than humans . This mean the distance between two nerve cell in pigeon brains is 50 pct brusque than in humans .
