• Question: Do our brains work the same as other animals such as birds??

    Asked by bromine35 to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      The human brain has the same basic bits as other vertebrates, but certain parts are bigger and smaller in different species, and different shapes. Compare this picture of a shark and human brain:

      Human and primate brains have bigger cerebral cortexes, particularly the prefrontal cortex. This is the bit of the brain that deals with expressing personality, social decisions, decision making and complex thoughts.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 22 Jun 2013:

      Yep, more or less – senses are fed into it and commands are sent out. A lot of this happens without us even noticing that we are doing it. For instance, our “auto pilot” systems are constantly keeping our lungs breathing and digestion going on, liver processing toxins and eyes blinking. We recoil if something is painful and we smile when something makes us happy. We don’t actually think about these things and make them happen and it’s hard to imagine animals as any different in terms of the “auto pilot”. However, the “thinking” parts of our brain are far more developed than most animals, including birds, so while they work the same (a bird makes a decision about where to build it’s nest and sometimes obviously gives this a lot of thought, weighing up pros and cons of each site before deciding), ours does a lot more of it! A famous philosopher called Descartes said that animals are “automata”: they are all auto pilot, and that’s why people are different, because we decide how to live our lives.. However, he was living at a time when there was a lot of pressure from the church to make it clear that people are different from animals, so maybe this makes him biased. It’s fun to think about, and one of those questions that mixes science and philosophy – keep it up!

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