Crows Are Self-Aware and ‘Know What They Know,’ Just Like Humans

In a study, crows performed a complex task that involved hundreds of firing sensory analytical neurons. Crows can do jobs , share knowledge, and even ritualistically mourn their dead. What this new study suggests is still being interpreted in the scientific community. In what now feels like an annual update, crows are even more surprisingly smart than we thought. But do they have true consciousness? New research shows that crows and other corvids "know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds," according to STAT . This is considered a cornerstone of self-awareness and shared by just a handful of animal species besides humans. � You love badass birds. So do we. Let’s nerd out over them together. In new research published in Science , German scientists put crows through a series of puzzling tasks. During those tasks, the scientists measured neural activity in different kinds of neurons with the goal of tracking how crows were sensing and reasoning through their work. They sought to study a specific kind of thinking called sensory consciousness, and they chose birds in particular as an evolutionary history pivot. The task is simple, but involves some high-level brain stuff: […]

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