Crows are capable of consciously perceiving sensory input

[omiCrobe 31]

 

Quote

By measuring brain signals, a neuroscience research group at the University of Tübingen has demonstrated for the first time that corvid songbirds possess subjective experiences. Simultaneously recording behavior and brain activity enabled the group headed by Professor Andreas Nieder to show that crows are capable of consciously perceiving sensory input. Until now this type of consciousness has only been witnessed in humans and other primates, which have completely different brain structures to birds.

 

 

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-conscious-birds-brains.html

Edited September 28, 2020 by omiCrobe

[BarriaKarl 2,393]

Man, talk about ambiguous talking.

It almost as if the article is scared to be clear or trying to appear more complex through obscurity.

From what I got, in simple terms, the researchers trained crows to react to changes/stimulus. Initially these stimulus being clear (Flashing or going from black to red for example). Later, they used changes that would in fact require the Crows to actually judge by themselves if a change ocurred at all. No example was provided (why make it clear to the reader?) but I think imagine something like going from black to dark grey or somethinmg like that, just something that makes you think 'did it change?'

That self questioning seems to be definition of 'conscious perception'. It requires the subject awareness of what a change/stimulus is.

That seems to me a a sign of 'advanced' intelligence. We have all seems vids of Crows doing some pretty smart stuff so that doesnt surprise much.

Interesting stuff. Just needed to be easier to understand.

[francis101 9]

I thought it was commonly accepted that every animal experiment subjective experiences.

Personally I believe that every living thing has a subjective experience of some kind (at least the feeling of basic pain and pleasure).

Also I doubt that we can confirm the existence of subjective experiences by measuring the activity of individual brain cells. Conscious beings could be indiscernible from philosophical zombies using this method.