Have you ever lived with a mynah bird, a crow, a parrot(s)? “Cognition without Cortex” by Onur Güntürkün and Thomas Bugnyar in Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Published online March 1 2016 doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.02.001

“Cognition in corvids and parrots reaches the same level of excellence and diversity as in apes. Among others, bird cognition encompasses abilities such as delay of gratification, mental time travel, reasoning, metacognition, mirror self-recognition, theory of mind, and third-party intervention. The cerebrum of birds and mammals is homologous but very differently organized. Birds lack a neocortex but have instead several large pallial aggregations without apparent laminar structure. However, according to some scientists, these aggregations might correspond to cortical layers. Independent from each other, birds and mammals have developed similar brain organizations that could constitute the neural basis of their cognitive skills. Birds have a functional analog to the prefrontal cortex that generates executive functions. Their telencephalic connectome is highly similar to that of diverse mammalian species and they show a ‘hidden’ lamination that resembles cortical canonical circuits in parts of their sensory pallial territories.”