Coding of subjective sensory experience in the crow brain

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Nieder
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260740234

The capacities of corvid songbirds in the realm of learning, memory, tool use, and executive control collectively support the functioning of the avian nervous systems as sophisticated as those of most mammals, including primates. Subjective experiences (primary consciousness) in mammals are thought to require a supervisory attentional system, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), that controls the activities of lower-level sensory routines. In birds, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) of the telencephalon is considered to be a functional analogue of the PFC, the highest cognitive brain center in mammals. We investigate the neuronal correlates of avian subjective experiences in corvids by training carrion crows (Corvus corone) to report the presence or absence of visual and/or auditory stimuli of varying intensity at perceptual threshold. Here, the internal status of the crows determines whether they have, or have not perceived an ambiguous sensory stimulus. At the same time, we will simultaneously record the activity of neurons in the NCL and downstream sensory areas. This will allow us to pin down the substrate and coding scheme of internal/subjectively perceived representation in intelligent corvids that possess a brain that is functionally on a par with higher primate brains, despite its fundamental anatomical divergence. Comparing expected differences and commonalities to findings in nonhuman primates will help to understand the constraints for the design of intelligent vertebrate brains and how they give rise to primary consciousness based on convergent evolution of telencephalic associative brain areas.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants