Hi, Ospreyers,

Some interesting international research from NIH:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Friday, February 4, 2005


BIRDS BRAINIER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

The brains of birds appear to be more similar to those of mammals than
previously thought. An international consortium, funded in part by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), this week announced new language to
identify brain structures in birds. This landmark change, the first such
shift in a century, reflects new evidence about the function and evolution
of the vertebrate brain, mapping out similarities between structures and
cognitive abilities in avian brains and the brains of mammals. The
Consortium report is published in the February 2005 issue of "Nature Reviews
Neuroscience".

The new research revises the work of 19th century comparative neurobiologist
Ludwig Edinger, who first named avian brain structures using the classical
view of evolution and the ideas of Charles Darwin. Edinger believed that
evolution was progressive and linear; that the mammalian brain was a more
evolved form of the rudimentary structures of the reptilian and avian brain.
New findings over the years have shown that birds possess neural capacities
beyond those of some small mammal species.

The old terminology for areas of the bird brain equated them to human basal
ganglia-structures thought to be involved in only the most instinctive
behavior. Previous opinion held that the malleable behavior of mammals
required the higher-order neocortex found in mammals. But collected genetic,
behavioral, and molecular evidence shows that, although the structures are
organized differently, areas of the avian brain perform functions similar to
those of the mammalian neocortex, which is responsible for performing
sensory information processing.


The entire press release can be found at

http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2005/nimh-04.htm


Lydia Schindler
Darnestown, Montgomery Co