Overview
- Peer-reviewed results in JNeurosci compared expert and novice birders with diffusion and functional MRI during a timed bird-identification task.
- Experts outperformed novices on local and unfamiliar species, and accuracy tracked lower mean diffusivity indicating denser tissue in attention and perception networks.
- When experts judged non-local birds, activity increased in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulcus and right occipitotemporal cortex, a pattern not seen in novices.
- Experts exhibited a smaller age-related decline in structural complexity across these regions, consistent with a possible cognitive reserve in older adults.
- Reports differ on the sample size (48 vs 58) and note recruitment from birding and outdoor groups, and researchers call for longitudinal follow-up to test causality and address potential lifestyle confounds.