© Jack DeLap/University of WashingtonBefore brain scanning, a crow was exposed on and off for about 15 minutes to a person wearing either a caring mask or a threatening mask, but not both.
Crows don't forget a face - and they hold grudges, too.
Researchers in Seattle revealed last year that
captured crows remember the face of their abductor. Even though years had passed since they saw the threatening face, the crows in the experiment would taunt their captor and dive-bomb him, suggesting the birds held tightly to a negative association.
Now the researchers' follow-up study shows that the birds' brains light up much like the human mind when they see a face they know.
"The regions of the crow brain that work together are not unlike those that work together in mammals, including humans," lead researcher John Marzluff, of the University of Washington, said in a statement from the school. "These regions were suspected to work in birds but not documented until now."
In the study, 12 male adult crows were captured by researchers all wearing one type of mask, referred to in the study as the threatening face. Then during four weeks of captivity, the birds were fed by people wearing a different mask. Though both disguises had neutral expressions, this mask was referred to ask the caring face.
To see what was going on in the birds' brains when they saw both faces, the researchers injected a glucose fluid into the bodies of fully alert crows. The crows were then put in the presence of someone wearing either the threatening or caring mask for about 15 minutes before the birds were sedated and given a brain scan.
The fluid revealed which parts of their brains were most active around a certain mask-wearer and the researchers said the mental recognition process was similar to humans. Marzluff said it appears the
smart birds have a region of their brain that is analogous to the amygdala of mammals.
"The amygdala is the region of the vertebrate brain where negative associations are stored as memories," he said in the statement. "Previous work primarily concerned its function in mammals while our work shows that a similar system is at work in birds."
The study, published this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that caretakers might be able to reduce the stress of captive animals by treating them well and consistently.
"By feeding and caring for birds in captivity their brain activity suggests that the birds view their keepers as valued social partners, rather than animals that must be feared," Marzluff said.
He added that the findings might even be used to make better behaved crows, suggesting that the birds could be manipulated to associate eating a rare species with a negative experience to train them to avoid a particular prey.
"Birds could be manipulated"
I found the study interesting and enlightening, and when I got to, "birds could be manipulated," it only became more scarily so. I wish I could trust "our" universities, but given the controls of same by the giant trusts, such as Rockefeller and Ford foundations - last investigated before I was born - I no longer have that same level of faith I once did. Thus, . . .
Given that crows and ravens are as closely related as different species can be, I now even more fear the malevolency of this black bird, here at my home:
"๏ปฟAnd the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!"
(Poe, The Raven.)
As I wrote of California Scrub Jays recently, (the smartest birds being magpies, crows, jays and similar - I think a Mynah bird is also one of those), if you wish to see a great Mark Twain story on the wisdom, and humor, of birds, read the Blue Jay Yarn, which, like all of his work, is free online. [Link]
Read it if you haven't.
R.C.