The present study compares the ‘bandwidth of cognition’ between crows and primates. Working memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information over short periods of time – a core component of cognition. The capacity of working memory is tightly limited, in humans correlated with individual intelligence and commonly used synonymously with cognitive capacity. Crows have remarkable cognitive skills and while birds and mammals share neural principles of working memory, its capacity has not been tested in crows. Here we report the performance of two carrion crows on a working memory paradigm adapted from a recent experiment in rhesus monkeys. Capacity of crows is remarkably similar to monkeys and estimated at about four items. In both species, the visual hemifields show largely independent capacity. These results show that crows, like primates evolved a high-capacity working memory that reflects the result of convergent evolution of higher cognitive abilities in both species.
Complex cognition relies on flexible working memory, which is severely limited in its capacity. The neuronal computations underlying these capacity limits have been extensively studied in humans and in monkeys, resulting in competing theoretical models. We probed the working memory capacity of crows (Corvus corone) in a change detection task, developed for monkeys (Macaca mulatta), while we performed extracellular recordings of the prefrontal-like area nidopallium caudolaterale. We found that neuronal encoding and maintenance of information were affected by item load, in a way that is virtually identical to results obtained from monkey prefrontal cortex. Contemporary neurophysiological models of working memory employ divisive normalization as an important mechanism that may result in the capacity limitation. As these models are usually conceptualized and tested in an exclusively mammalian context, it remains unclear if they fully capture a general concept of working memory or if they are restricted to the mammalian neocortex. Here we report that carrion crows and macaque monkeys share divisive normalization as a neuronal computation that is in line with mammalian models. This indicates that computational models of working memory developed in the mammalian cortex can also apply to non-cortical associative brain regions of birds.
Complex cognition relies on flexible working memory, which is severely limited in its capacity. The neuronal computations underlying these capacity limits have been extensively studied in humans and in monkeys, resulting in competing theoretical models. We probed the working memory capacity of crows (Corvus corone) in a change detection task, developed for monkeys (Macaca mulatta), while we performed extracellular recordings of the prefrontal-like area nidopallium caudolaterale. We found that neuronal encoding and maintenance of information were affected by item load, in a way that is virtually identical to results obtained from monkey prefrontal cortex. Contemporary neurophysiological models of working memory employ divisive normalization as an important mechanism that may result in the capacity limitation. As these models are usually conceptualized and tested in an exclusively mammalian context, it remains unclear if they fully capture a general concept of working memory or if they are restricted to the mammalian neocortex. Here we report that carrion crows and macaque monkeys share divisive normalization as a neuronal computation that is in line with mammalian models. This indicates that computational models of working memory developed in the mammalian cortex can also apply to non-cortical associative brain regions of birds.
Complex cognition requires coordinated neuronal activity at the network level. In mammals, this coordination results in distinct dynamics of local field potentials (LFP) that have been central in many models of higher cognition. Because these models are based on mammalian data, they often implicitly assume a cortical organization. Higher associative regions of the brains of birds do not have cortical layering, yet these regions have neuronal single cell correlates of higher cognition that are very similar to those found in mammals. Here we recorded LFP in the avian equivalent of prefrontal cortex while crows performed a highly controlled and cognitively demanding working memory task, adapted from monkeys. To further ensure that recordings reflected only cognitive processes detached from motor related activities we trained and monitored the animals to keep their head still. We found signatures in local field potentials, modulated by working memory demands. Frequencies of a narrow gamma (30-59 Hz) and of the beta band (13-19 Hz) contained information about the location of the target items on screen and were modulated by working memory load. This indicates critical involvement of these bands in ongoing cognitive processing. We also observed bursts in the beta and gamma frequencies, similar to those observed in monkeys. Such bursts are a vital part of activity silent models of working memory. Thus, despite the lack of a cortical organization the avian associative pallium can create LFP signatures reminiscent to those in observed in primates. This points towards a critical cognitive function of oscillatory dynamics, evolved through convergence in species capable of complex cognition.
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