Research Shows Bird Brains Arent So Bad.doc

Research Shows Bird Brains Aren’t So Bad The next time someone calls you a “bird brain,” you should thank them. Changing Opinions Neuroscientists’ opinions about the brains of birds have changed. In humans and other mammals, the roof of the forebrain has evolved into the cerebral cortex, a structure responsible for flexible learning and reasoning. Early neuroanatomists thought that the forebrain roof was small and simple in birds, with its forebrain instead being dominated by structures in its base, called the basal ganglia. Without an elaborate forebrain roof, it seemed that birds couldn’t be