
Parrots have evolved a primate-like telencephalic-midbrain-cerebellar circuit - laurex
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28301-4
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ariehkovler
Parrots and some other birds (like corvids) are ludicrously intelligent for
their size and brain size. They can solve puzzles, use tools, copy speech and
do all sorts of things that we usually associate with big-brained higher
mammals.

This looks like we're finally getting some sense of how birds' intelligence
works from a neuroevolutionary sense.

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partycoder
They independently evolved a structure similar to the mammalian neocortex
called the avian nidopallium.

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hyperpallium
Our ancestors had large brains and made tools and fire long before language or
representational art. Some structural change enabled that. Probably, there
were individual components of it that arose before the whole change happened,
and then some further time for it to spread through the population and then
leave artefacts.

The spread may have been dramatic, because to an individual who could think,
everyone else might seem like zombies or animals, easily manipulated or
outwitted. How some "woke" Holdenesque teenagers feel themselves to be.

My point is that, maybe such a large brain isn't really necessary for
intelligence. Just the structural change. Although, since we're the only ones,
_sufficient_ processing power seems a necessary precondition. It's just not
clear how much. Perhaps parrots are quite close.

There's the encephalization quotient, which finds the ratio between brain and
body size is what's important. e.g. Whales have enormous brains, but dolphins
seem to be more intelligent. Parrots, needing to be light enough to fly, have
a high EQ. (Spiders too)

Aside: it's thought that human brain size is limited by the birth canal, and
we are born prematurely, with swaddling and cots etc being artificial wombs.
Bird nests are also artificial wombs.

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vinceguidry
The interesting thing I learned about birds is that they have more efficient
brains, pound for pound, than mammals. It's not just about brain-size-to-
total-mass ratio, it's also an absolute how-much-processing-power-does-this-
brain-mass-get-me ratio. This almost assuredly would have been driven by the
constraints demanded by the need for flight. Crows can use tools just like
primates, with far, far smaller absolute brain weights.

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paulie_a
I have a parrot that learned to call the dog over to the cage, throw food at
him and then would laugh. Sometimes in a British accent, I am not sure where
that came from...

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therein
Dare I say, perhaps from watching John Oliver :)

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paulie_a
Unlikely, he is 36 years old and has been doing that for as long as as I can
remember.

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Razengan
The parrot is 36 years old? That's very special. I know some birds can outlive
humans (a web search will bring up some cases), but we generally think of pets
as having shorter lifetimes than us.

He's relatively a sage and I hope he is treated with the respect one deserves.
:)

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paulie_a
It actually turns out the bird is a female, but thirty years of saying "he" is
a hard habit to break. I was told from a pet store owner you could do a DNA
analysis of the poop to determine gender. Also he incorrectly told me male
birds could lay eggs if they didn't have a mate. I was 8 so I believed it.

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Razengan
> _Also he incorrectly told me male birds could lay eggs if they didn 't have
> a mate._

This is hilarious. You should get her a mate. :)

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tzahola
What is the evolutionary benefit of our large brains, when birds can achieve
such high intelligence in such a small volume? I mean, having a smaller head
would definitely be a tangible benefit for survival (e.g. easier birth, less
prone to injury, needs less energy) , yet humans had evolved in the exact
opposite direction... What is the avian brain’s secret sauce?

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wetpaws
You can write on hackernews, avians can't. I guess the answer is pretty
straightforward.

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picsao
What happens though if you give a avian or a tribe of sign language fluent
apes.. a way to write things down permanently..

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pessimizer
More evidence that differences in intelligence are largely differences in
basic brain _structure_ , not things that significantly vary within species.
IMO brains are structures that can be easily broken by mutations, but if
unbroken are of roughly equal potential (although a product of surface area
and density of connections might make a measurable difference in memory.)
Better brains would be significantly different in structure.

Give a brain the right structure, and it could be the size of a peanut and
figure out things you can't figure out.

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wavegeek
This is certainly evidence for the obvious point that structure matters.

But it is not evidence that size does not matter. There is a reason why the
human cortex is 4X the size of a chimp's. Human IQ is correlated with brain
size.

Density of connections also seems to matter.

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epx
Cockatiels also have an uncanny intelligence - they recognize different
people, behave and play differently with each one of them, I always wonder how
idle my surplus of 1298g of brain is...

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ben_w
Looking at my mother’s descent from Alzheimer’s, what we have is (if you will
excuse the analogy) more skill slots, not unique class skills.

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felipemnoa
Could you please expand on what you mean?

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skosch
I suppose they're referencing a popular video game mechanic, in which skill-
building works by collecting skills in a limited number of "slots".

The claim is that while humans may be able to master a large number of
different skills, few of them are limited to humans in and of themselves (and
not available to some other animals as well).

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felipemnoa
That clarifies things. Thanks.

