2014-03-22
They fly over hundreds of kilometers straight to their home. They memorize hundreds of abstract symbols, work for hours on problems without any sign of fatigue, manage logical problems like transitive inference, are in several respects cognitively on par with monkeys, have an unbelievably high frustration threshold during behavioral studies… and do all this for just a handful of grain. Pigeons have remarkable asymmetries of brain function, a reasonably well-charted nervous system and breast muscles that taste so well when served with wild mushrooms and a rich red wine gravy. In a recently published paper, Biopsychologists from Bochum have concocted a review of all the merits of pigeons as experimental animals for cognitive neuroscience. A sort of memorial that was long overdue.
They fly over hundreds of kilometers straight to their home. They memorize hundreds of abstract symbols, work for hours on problems without any sign of fatigue, manage logical problems like transitive inference, are in several respects cognitively on par with monkeys, have an unbelievably high frustration threshold during behavioral studies… and do all this for just a handful of grain. Pigeons have remarkable asymmetries of brain function, a reasonably well-charted nervous system and breast muscles that taste so well when served with wild mushrooms and a rich red wine gravy. In a recently published paper, Biopsychologists from Bochum have concocted a review of all the merits of pigeons as experimental animals for cognitive neuroscience. A sort of memorial that was long overdue.
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Last update: Sep 29, 2023
