Science · 22 October 2026 · From issue 56
Ultrarapid decision-making in an avian brain
Crows make visual choices in 235 milliseconds, twice as fast as primates, with equal accuracy.
Philipp Schmidbauer, Andreas Nieder.
Carrion crows made choices in a classic visual test in about 235 milliseconds, roughly twice as fast as monkeys or humans, without losing accuracy. Brain cells in the crow's thinking region signaled the coming choice about 70 milliseconds after a pattern appeared. This was about 170 milliseconds before the bird moved. The signal grew stronger as the visual clue got clearer, peaking right when the crow acted.
The average time crows took to decide and report a choice in a visual motion test.
One crow species, one task, lab setting only.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 28 October 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (Science). Read the source
This screen checks process signals. It does not tell you the findings are true.