Crows make visual decisions twice as fast as humans and monkeys
Researchers at the University of Tübingen published a study in Science showing crows decide on visual motion twice as fast as humans.
Neural signals diverge quickly
University of Tübingen researchers recorded neuron activity in the birds' associative brain region. Signals for different motion directions began to diverge just 70 milliseconds after the visual stimulus started. This rapid neural processing allows the crows to identify movement direction with high accuracy.
Decision speed comparison
The two carrion crows averaged 235 milliseconds to identify motion and indicate their choice. This response time is twice as fast as that of humans and monkeys in similar tasks. The birds maintained this speed even when the visual patterns were difficult to recognize.
High accuracy rates
The crows achieved nearly 100 percent accuracy when motion signals were clear. Their performance remained better than random choices even with hard-to-see patterns. Philipp Schmidbauer and professor Andreas Nieder demonstrated these results in their study.
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