How are our brains different from other animals' brains?
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From the brains behind Brains On, this is Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Sandon Totten. What a gorgeous day to be out on a walk with my favorite furry pal, Penelope Poodle. We're soaking up the sunshine while she collects all her sniffs for the day.

There's some cute squirrels chattering at each other in that tree over there. And we just saw the neighbor's big orange cat, Mr. Buttons. Great walk. Top tier. Really good stuff. You know, I was just letting my thoughts wander as I waited for Penelope to finish sniffing a stop sign. And it occurred to me, what does Penelope think about when we go on walks? Is she pondering philosophical problems?

Making up dog poetry? Thinking about kibble? How about those chatty squirrels over there? What are they thinking about? They're probably not thinking about laundry or a crisp new vinyl record or building a catapult out of macaroni like I am. So what is going on in their brains? Duhal was curious about this too. How are our brains different from other animals?

My name is Christina Couch. I am a writer and I've written a book for kids ages 9 through 12. It's called Innovative Octopuses, Half-Brain Birds, and More Animals with Magnificent Minds. We don't have a single great simple answer for it. Here are some things that we do know, though. Scientists know that some animals have brains that look very similar to ours.

Most animals have brains that look and act very different from ours, and they can be different sizes and different shapes and different levels. Our brains are very wrinkly. Some animals have very smooth brains. There's a lot of differences between species, and even within the same species, there's a lot of differences between the brains of, say, one type of bird and the brain of a different type of bird.

It weighs about as much as, say, a grapefruit or like a small pineapple. An octopus's brain is actually shaped like a donut. It's a ring. It sits in the octopus's head. And running through that ring is a part called the esophagus. It's the part of your body that food goes from your mouth down to your digestive system.

So they have this donut-shaped brain, but that's not actually where their brain ends. They have lots of cells called neurons that run all throughout their body. And unlike us, most of our decisions have to go from our body up to our brain and back again. So if you poke your friend, that sense has to go from your finger all the way up to your brain so you can make a decision on what to do and then back again. But an octopus has what's called a distributed brain.

The arms of an octopus can actually make some decisions all by themselves. Octopuses can walk across the seafloor, but when they do it, the central brain makes the decision to walk, but the arms themselves...

can make smaller choices on how to execute that. And I think about that all the time. Anytime I see an octopus, now that's like all I imagine is just like these little arms making these tiny micro decisions, one right after the other. And there's a lot of variation. Like we see all sorts of cool variations on brains throughout the animal kingdom.

These variations give animals some incredible abilities that people don't have. For example, some birds can sleep with half of their brains on and half of them off. It gives some birds the ability to sleep while flying, which is incredible. There are other animals that have incredible memories that humans, we just have a different system. There are other things that humans can do that animals either can't

can't do or that we haven't been able to observe, that we haven't seen yet. Well, that makes a lot of sense. The way animals think depends on what they need to do to survive in their environments. For example, humans have big wrinkly brains with billions of special cells called neurons that help us do things like use language and make technology.

A mouse, on the other hand, has a small, smooth brain that isn't as tightly packed with neurons. But that doesn't mean mice aren't smart. They're great at doing everything a mouse needs to do to find food, make a nest, and hide from predators. The thing is, brains use a lot of energy. And because mice are so small, having a bigger, more complicated brain would just make it tougher for them to find enough food to survive.

Animal brains can also do some incredible things that our brains can't, like mallard ducks, who can rest half their brain at a time while keeping an eye out for predators. But even though other animals' brains are different from ours, we can't know exactly how or what they're thinking. Well, except for this time, because I'm pretty sure Penelope is thinking that I need to go pick up her poop so we can go home. ♪

If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to learn more about another big-brained buddy, check out the Brains On podcast, where we have a whole episode all about how humpback whales use songs to communicate. Want to see our shows come to life? Head to YouTube, where we've got awesome animated Brains On episodes. Just search Brains On Universe on YouTube and subscribe.

If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and the next day and every weekday. Until then, um. Penelope, I wish you had thumbs so you could pick up your own poop.

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