Stories tagged self-recognition

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the brainiest of them all?: A yellowbilled magpie involved in some self-reflection.
Courtesy Vicki and Chuck RogersMagpies can recognize their own reflections in a mirror, according to a new study just out in the PloS Biology journal.

The magpie is member of the Corvidae family of birds, a group that includes crows, ravens and jays, and one that’s regarded as highly intelligent.

The research involved placing colored stickers on a magpie’s body in a place not viewable by the bird. When a mirror was provided, the bird was able to see the sticker and attempted to remove it with its beak or claws.

When a black mark matching the magpie’s dark feathers was used, the bird took no notice, confirming the bird wasn’t just investigating what researchers were doing to it. And when the mirror itself was removed even the colored marks were ignored.

The study raises questions about brain development. Before this study, only mammals such as chimpanzees, orangutans - and to some extent dolphins and elephants - have shown signs of self-awareness. But unlike a mammalian brain, a bird’s brain doesn’t possess a neocortex, an area thought necessary for self-recognition.

"After finding this kind of intelligence in apes, many people thought it had developed once in one evolutionary line with humans at the end. The bird studies show it has developed at least twice,” said Dr Helmut Prior, a psychologist from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. He and his colleagues used 5 magpies in the study.

SOURCES and LINKS

Science News website
New Scientist site with video
More about the neocortex

Tags : magpies, birds, brain, neocortex, self-recognition, self-awareness, perception, intelligence

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