Birds Dream and Snore

June 27, 2008

To begin here today, I'd like to quote one of my favorite comics and proponents of free speech, George Carlin, who, as many of you know, died earlier this week:
"Are we so much better than chickens? When did this happen? Name six ways we're better than chickens. Do it. I dare you to try. You'll find that chickens are decent people..."

Think of all of the times humans have called someone "a bird brain" to jokingly say that a person is stupid. The joke's on us, because studies are showing bird brain activity is very similar to our own. This week's PNAS, for example, features a paper by Philip Steven Low, of the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, and his team.

They studied zebra finches sleeping, and determined that all major human and mammal sleep phases are also experienced by birds. These include slow wave sleep, the well-known rapid eye movement (REM) and intermediate sleep stages. The findings suggest birds dream, just as we do. (They also snore, but I'll save that discussion for possibly another time.)

Check out the below extraordinary photo. Here's the provided caption and credit:
"A Night of Sleep in a Zebra Finch. Two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional manifold computed from a sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, using the SPEARS algorithm created by Dr. Philip Low at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Every dot corresponds to three seconds of brain activity collected in 1 second increments. Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (REM, red dots) and Slow Wave Sleep (SWS, blue dots) form perpendicular planes linked by Intermediate Sleep (IS, cyan dots). Image courtesy of Dr. Philip Low, Salk Institute."

In all seriousness, I may make a print of that photo and put it up in my bedroom, to inspire dreams about birds dreaming.

Below is a cute little video showing what many of us would probably like to do while at the computer. This is Squeeky the Lovebird.