Being strongly right- or left-handed might be a sign of intelligence – for bird brains, at least.
Ambidextrous parrots are a lot less smart than their left- or right-biased counterparts, say Maria Magat and Culum Brown at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who set the birds problem-solving tasks.
All animals have cerebral lateralisation, meaning that their brains are divided into two hemispheres responsible for processing different tasks. Strongly lateralised individuals are strongly "handed" – or strongly "footed" in the case of birds.
"Our study shows that strong lateralisation improves problem-solving ability and foraging in birds, which is an evolutionary advantage," says Brown.
All animals have cerebral lateralisation, meaning that their brains are divided into two hemispheres responsible for processing different tasks. Strongly lateralised individuals are strongly "handed" – or strongly "footed" in the case of birds.
"Our study shows that strong lateralisation improves problem-solving ability and foraging in birds, which is an evolutionary advantage," says Brown.
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