Thursday, October 22, 2026Thu, Oct 22
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Crows may make lightning-fast decisions, study hints

The study published in Science recorded activity from 248 neurons in a bird brain region comparable to the human prefrontal cortex; the human comparison is borrowed.

On air: Hank Ledger and Dale Bearman on The Bonk-o-Meter
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Photo: Alexis Lours · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
▶ As it aired · U.S.

Watch it as it aired: Hank Ledger and Dale Bearman on this story, from The Bonk-o-Meter at 5:45 PM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Live Science's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Carrion crow
Photo: Alexis Lours · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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What BBN said about it

  1. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe claim under review: crows make decisions twice as fast as humans. We're checking it against what Live Science actually reported.

  2. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorCarrion crows decided about moving dots on a screen faster than humans and primates tend to, according to a study in the journal Science, Live Science reports.

  3. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorTwo hundred and thirty-five milliseconds. The crow had decided before I'd finished disliking the question.

  4. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's the average for telling which way the dots moved. They pecked a touchscreen for a mealworm.

  5. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorEven when only three percent of the dots moved together, they were right half the time.

  6. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA crow guessing better than you is a new kind of insult.

  7. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorNow the catch. The study used two crows, and it never tested humans or monkeys on the same task.

  8. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe human comparison comes from older studies.

  9. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorTwo birds. So the entire species may just have been the two who read the instructions.

  10. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe lead researcher says a brain doesn't need a mammalian neocortex for sophisticated computations. A professor not involved said, quote, Holy cow.

  11. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorRating: Mildly Bonkers. Fast crows, but only two of them, and the humans were never in the room.

  12. Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorOnly mildly? They've already decided about us.

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