Crows Execute Decision Logic Faster Than Monkeys, Study Finds
Researchers report that carrion crows solve a motion discrimination task using the same mechanism as primates but at twice the speed.
By Lucia Herrera ·
Crows reach conclusions faster than primates.
A study published on October 23, 2026, reports that carrion crows utilize a decision-making process comparable to that of monkeys, yet they execute these computations at double the speed. The research addresses a fundamental gap in understanding how brains organize choices when their physical structures differ significantly.
Neurobiologist Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen and his colleague Philipp Schmidbauer conducted the experiment to determine if an avian brain, which lacks a neocortex, could replicate the logic found in primate neural circuits. In primates, neurons in the neocortex accumulate visual evidence until firing rates cross a threshold, prompting a choice. "This was the big question," Nieder said regarding how a differently organized avian brain would encode decisions.
The team administered the random-dot-motion task to two hand-raised carrion crows. The birds faced a touch-sensitive monitor displaying white dots on a black background. To earn a mealworm, the crows had to identify the direction of drifting dots by pecking targets flanking the screen. Nieder stated that the researchers intentionally maintained the same setup used in monkey experiments, noting the only difference was the response method: "whereas monkeys were indicating by making an eye movement," the crows pecked.
Difficulty was controlled by adjusting the percentage of dots moving coherently. Conditions ranged from 81 percent, which was easy to read, to 3 percent, which was barely distinguishable from noise. The study also included a zero percent condition where no correct answer existed. Analysis of the crows' performance showed they applied the same mathematical logic as primates to solve the task.
The findings indicate that a brain without a neocortex can arrive at decisions through a comparable process to that of primates. While the mechanism mirrors that of primate decision-making, the speed of the crows' processing exceeded the monkeys' by a factor of two.
Source: Ars Technica
