Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots

Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) solve various cognitive tasks and acquire and use English speech in ways that often resemble those of very young children. Given that the psittacine brain is organized very differently from that of mammals, these results have intriguing implications for the study and evolution of vocal learning, communication, and cognition

Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus) Numerical Abilities: Addition and Further Experiments on a Zero-Like Concept

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), able to quantify 6 or fewer item sets (including heterogeneous subsets) by using English labels (I. M. Pepperberg, 1994), was tested on addition of quantities involving 0–6. He was, without explicit training, asked, “How many total X?” for 2 sequentially presented collections (e.g., of variously sized jelly beans or nuts) and required to answer with a vocal English number label. His accuracy suggested (a) that his addition abilities are comparable to those of nonhuman primates and young children, (b) some limits as to his correlation of “none” and the concept of zero, and (c) a possible counting-like strategy for the quantity 5

COAL IN NEBRASKA

Until February, 1906, Nebraska was termed the state without a mine, and may still be called the state with but a single mine, and yet it would be impossible to tell how much prospecting has been done, or to estimate the number of thousands of dollars that have been spent in this state trying to develop paying mines from the thin beds of coal discovered throughout various parts of the state in the Carboniferous and Cretaceous formations

Animal sentience is not enough to motivate conservation

Chapman & Huffman suggest that humans’ views of their own superiority are a source of their callousness toward the environment. I do not disagree but point to a number of other issues that must be addressed for conservation efforts to succeed

Ordinality and Inferential Abilities of a Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus)

A grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), able to label the color of the bigger or smaller object in a pair (I. M. Pepperberg & M. V. Brezinsky, 1991), to vocally quantify ≤6 item sets (including heterogeneous subsets; I. M. Pepperberg, 1994), and separately trained to identify Arabic numerals 1–6 with the same vocal English labels but not to associate Arabic numbers with their relevant physical quantities, was shown pairs of Arabic numbers or an Arabic numeral and a set of objects and was asked for the color of the bigger or smaller one. The parrot’s success showed he (a) understood number symbols as abstract representations of real-world collections, (b) inferred the relationship between the Arabic number and the quantity via stimulus equivalence, and (c) understood the ordinal relationship of his numbers

Coal In Nebraska

Until February, 1906, Nebraska was termed the state without a mine, and may still be called the state with but a single mine, and yet it would be impossible to tell how much prospecting has been done, or to estimate the number of thousands of dollars that have been spent in this state trying to develop paying mines from the thin beds of coal discovered throughout various parts of the state in the Carboniferous and Cretadeous formations

Grey Parrots Do Not Always ‘Parrot’: The Roles of Imitation and Phonological Awareness in the Creation of New Labels from Existing Vocalizations

Evidence exists for a form of imitation, vocal segmentation, by a Grey parrot. Data show that the bird understands that his labels are comprised of individual units that can be recombined in novel ways to create a novel referential vocalization; that is, a novel act. Previous data suggested, but could not substantiate, this behaviour. Such evidence implies that a parrot not only has phonological awareness but also demonstrates true imitation rather than mimicry, and has implications for the studies of both the evolution of communicative competence and the development of robotic speech

COAL IN NEBRASKA

Until February, 1906, Nebraska was termed the state without a mine, and may still be called the state with but a single mine, and yet it would be impossible to tell how much prospecting has been done, or to estimate the number of thousands of dollars that have been spent in this state trying to develop paying mines from the thin beds of coal discovered throughout various parts of the state in the Carboniferous and Cretaceous formations

Robust photoregulation of GABA(A) receptors by allosteric modulation with a propofol analogue.

Photochemical switches represent a powerful method for improving pharmacological therapies and controlling cellular physiology. Here we report the photoregulation of GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) by a derivative of propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol), a GABA(A)R allosteric modulator, which we have modified to contain photoisomerizable azobenzene. Using α(1)β(2)γ(2) GABA(A)Rs expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes and native GABA(A)Rs of isolated retinal ganglion cells, we show that the trans-azobenzene isomer of the new compound (trans-MPC088), generated by visible light (wavelengths ~440 nm), potentiates the γ-aminobutyric acid-elicited response and, at higher concentrations, directly activates the receptors. cis-MPC088, generated from trans-MPC088 by ultraviolet light (~365 nm), produces little, if any, receptor potentiation/activation. In cerebellar slices, MPC088 co-applied with γ-aminobutyric acid affords bidirectional photomodulation of Purkinje cell membrane current and spike-firing rate. The findings demonstrate photocontrol of GABA(A)Rs by an allosteric ligand, and open new avenues for fundamental and clinically oriented research on GABA(A)Rs, a major class of neurotransmitter receptors in the central nervous system