Birdbrain has long been a colloquial¹ term of ridicule². The common notion is that birds’ brains are simple, or so scientists thought and taught for many years. But that notion has increasingly been called into question as crows and parrots, among other birds, have shown what appears to be behavior as intelligent as that of chimpanzees. 

　　The clash of simple brain and complex behavior has led some neuroscientists to create a new map of the avian brain. 

　　Today, in the journal Nature Neuroscience Reviews, an international group of avian experts is issuing what amounts to a manifesto³. Nearly everything written in anatomy⁴ textbooks about the brains of birds is wrong, they say. The avian brain is as complex, flexible and inventive as any mammalian brain, they argue, and it is time to adopt a more accurate nomenclature that reflects a new understanding of the anatomies⁵ of bird and mammal brains. 

　　"Names have a powerful influence on the experiments we do and the way we think," said Dr. Erich D. Jarvis, a neuroscientist at Duke University and a leader of the Avian Brain Nomenclature Consortium. "Old terminology⁶ has hindered scientific progress." 

　　The consortium of 29 scientists from six countries met for seven years to develop new, more accurate names for structures in both avian and mammalian brains. For example, the bird’s seat of intelligence or its higher brain is now termed the pallium. 

　　"The correction of terms is a great advance," said Dr. Jon Kaas, a leading expert in neuroanatomy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who did not participate in the consortium. "It’s hard to get scientists to agree about anything." 

　　Scientists have come to agree that birds are indeed smart, but those who study avian intelligence differ on how birds got that way. Experts, including those in the consortium, are split into two warring camps. One holds that birds’ brains make the same kinds of internal connections as do mammalian brains and that intelligence in both groups arises from these connections. The other holds that bird intelligence evolved through expanding an old part of the mammal brain and using it in new ways, and it questions how developed that intelligence is. 

　　人们通常认为鸟类大脑简单，科学家们很多年来也是这么认为和这么教人的。但当乌鸦和鹦鹉，包括其它鸟类的行为表明它们和黑猩猩一样聪明时，这种观念就不断受到质疑。 

　　据最新一期的《自然神经科学评论》报道，一个鸟类专家国际小组宣布说，有关鸟类大脑的解剖学教科书里所写的几乎都是错误的。专家说，鸟类的大脑和任何哺乳动物的大脑一样，是复杂、灵活、具有创造性的。 

　　乌鸦不仅会用小树枝的钩钩叉叉来觅食，有些还学会了把胡桃衔到公路上，让过往的汽车把胡桃碾碎，然后享用胡桃仁。 

　　非洲灰鹦鹉不仅会说话，还有点幽默感。据一些研究人员说，鹦鹉能与人交流，它们还会发明词汇，并能把自己知道的东西教给其它鹦鹉。研究人员说，一只名叫亚历克斯的非洲灰鹦鹉能知道一些数字和颜色的概念，并能像婴儿那样捕捉到人们谈话里的字母。 

　　鸽子能记住725种不同的图案，并且会使“诡计”。它们会假装在一个地方找到了食物，等把别的鸟吸引过去之后，它们自己却偷偷摸摸地回到真正的食物源，独享美味。 

　　这些来自6个国家的29位鸟类学家研究了7年后，提出了一套新的、更准确的鸟类和哺乳动物大脑各种组织结构的名称。例如，鸟类大脑智力的中心部位现在被定名为大脑皮层。美国杜克大学的神经学家、鸟类大脑命名法协会的负责人埃里希·贾维斯博士说：“名称对于我们所做的实验和我们思考的方式有很大的影响。陈旧的术语阻碍了科学的进步。” 

　　科学家们现在达成了这样的共识：鸟类的确是聪明的，但是那些研究鸟类智力的科学家们对于鸟类如何变得这样聪明有不同看法。鸟类学专家们——包括鸟类大脑命名法协会里的科学家——甚至分成了两个对立的阵营。一方坚持认为：鸟类大脑内部联系的方式和哺乳动物大脑一样，而鸟类和哺乳动物的智力都来自这种大脑内部的联系；另一方认为，鸟类大脑里智力的来源和哺乳动物是不同的，但他们尚不清楚鸟类的智力是如何发展的。

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