Doves in multitasking better than humans

In multitasking, pigeons are sometimes faster than humans
Multitasking is considered to be cognitively demanding. But not only the complex cerebral cortices of mammals can accomplish this task, but small bird brain are sufficient, according to a recent study by scientists at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at the Technical University of Dresden. In some experiments, pigeons showed even better performance in multitasking than humans.

According to the researchers, pigeons can switch back and forth between tasks as fast as humans. In some situations they are even faster. This clearly proves that multitasking, as has long been believed, does not require the complex cerebral cortex of mammals. Your results have Dr. Sara Letzner and Professor Dr. H. c. Onur Güntürkün of the RUB and Dr. med. Christian Beste from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus published in the journal "Current Biology".

Pigeons are superior to humans in many aspects of multitasking. (Image: missisya / fotolia.com)

Complex cerebral cortex not required
In behavioral experiments, the researchers had both humans and pigeons stop an ongoing action and switch to an alternative action as quickly as possible to test their ability to multitask. For a long time, it was believed that mammalian six-layer cerebral cortex was the anatomical origin of cognitive ability, Dr. Letzner. However, such a structure does not occur in birds, so that "the structure of the mammalian cortex can not be the prerequisite for complex cognitive functions such as multitasking," the researcher explains in a statement by the RUB.

Less distance between the neurons
Although the brain sheath of birds, the pallium, has no layers comparable to the human cortex, the neurons are more densely packed here than in the human cerebral cortex, the researchers report. For example, in pigeons, there are six times more nerve cells per cubic millimeter of brain than in humans. As a result, the average distance between two neurons in pigeons is only about half the average distance between human neurons.

Bird brain can process information faster?
Based on the smaller distance between the neurons and the fact that the signals of the nerve cells in birds and mammals are forwarded equally fast, the researchers hypothesized that information can be processed more quickly in the bird's brain than in mammals. This was verified by tests in which pigeons and humans had to switch between two tasks - either immediately or after a short delay.

People and pigeons tested
Fifteen people and twelve pigeons completed the multitasking task, stopping an ongoing action and making an alternative move as quickly as possible. "The change to the alternative action took place either simultaneously with the stopping of the first action or with a short delay of 300 milliseconds"; explain the scientists.

In real multitasking no difference
An immediate change to the new task, according to the researchers, a real multitasking instead, because two processes in the brain run parallel - the stopping of the first action and the change to the alternative action. This has led to a similar slowdown in the activity of both pigeons and humans due to the double burden.

Bird brain faster with alternating processing
The change between the tasks took place after a short delay, changed according to the statement of the researchers, the processes in the brain. It should be noted between the two processes, ie the stopping of the first action and the change to the second action, an alternating processing as in a ping pong game. For this, it is necessary to constantly send signals back and forth between the groups of nerve cells that control the two processes. The pigeons actually showed themselves to be somewhat more efficient in this experiment. They were 250 milliseconds faster than humans. The scientists attribute this to the fact that the pigeons have the advantage because of the greater density of the nerve cells.

According to Dr. Letzner finds it "a mystery in cognitive neuroscience for quite some time, how birds with such small brains and without a cortex can be so clever that some of them, such as crows and parrots, can cognitively take on chimpanzees." Here are the results According to the experts, the current study gives at least a partial answer. Because of the small but densely packed brain nerve cells are able to reduce the processing times for tasks that require rapid interaction between groups of neurons. (Fp)