Bird watching can reshape the brain and build its anti-aging buffer

Experienced bird watchers have brain differences that may underlie their remarkable ability to identify unfamiliar birds, suggesting that bird watching can reshape the brain in much the same way that learning a language or a musical instrument does. Such activities can strengthen cognitive reserve, the brain’s ability to resist aging and adapt to damage.

When learning or practicing a skill, the brain reorganizes, strengthens and streamlines the relevant pathways. This ability, known as neuroplasticity, underlies the development of expertise. This is why professional musicians show structural changes in brain areas involved in hearing and athletes show similar adaptations in motor areas.

To understand whether birdwatching also shapes the brain, Erik Křídlo at York University in Canada and colleagues analyzed brain structure and function in 48 amateur birders, half experts and half novices, as assessed by a screening test. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 79, and the two groups were similar in terms of gender, age, and education.

During the brain scan, participants were shown an image of a bird for less than 4 seconds. About 10 seconds later, they tried to identify the same bird in one of four pictures, each depicting a different species. “All birds are really alike,” says Wing. “We deliberately chose very confusing bird species.”

The task was repeated 72 times. In total, the researchers used the images of 18 species of birds – six of which were local and 12 of which were not – as targets.

As expected, bird experts were better at identifying birds than novices. On average, they correctly identified 83 percent of local bird species and 61 percent of non-native ones. In contrast, novices correctly identified 44 percent of both groups of birds.

When identifying nonlocal birds, activity in three brain regions—bilateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulcus, and right occipitotemporal cortex—increased in experienced but not novice birds. These areas are involved in object identification, visual processing, attention and working memory. “This speaks to a wide range of cognitive processes that are involved in bird watching,” says Wing.

These areas, along with others involved in these functions, also appeared more structurally complex and organized in experienced birders than in novices, suggesting that building birding expertise reshapes the brain.

As we age, structural complexity and organization tend to diminish in the brain—a trend observed in both novice and experienced bird watchers. But the decline was less pronounced in experienced birders, suggesting that birding may help build cognitive reserve, the brain’s ability to defend itself against aging and adapt to damage.

“It suggests that maintaining brain activity with some specialized abilities is also associated with reduced effects of aging,” he says Robert Zatorre at McGill University in Canada. “That’s an idea that’s been around for quite a while, but it’s a bit controversial,” he says. “This paper adds further evidence in favor of this concept.”

Extensive involvement in other hobbies that rely on similar skills, such as attention, memory and sensory integration, could lead to similar brain changes, Wing says. “Biding engages many of these different cognitive domains, making it potentially beneficial for many different types of cognition,” he says. “But there’s nothing intrinsic to the avian aspect. If you had another domain that recruited all the same types of processes, we’d expect to see some sort of comparable changes there.”

However, this study is only a moment in time. It is possible that people who become interested in birdwatching already have structural brain changes, or that other lifestyle factors that cause brain changes are more common among birds. To really know if the changes in the brain are caused by watching the birds, scientists would have to scan the brain multiple times over months to years, Wing says.

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