<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1110581385/a-woodpeckers-brain-takes-a-big-hit-with-every-peck-study">https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1110581385/a-woodpeckers-brain-takes-a-big-hit-with-every-peck-study</a><br><br><a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00855-7">https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00855-7</a><br><div><br></div><div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">The brain of a woodpecker experiences a seemingly catastrophic impact every time beak meets wood.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">"When you see these birds in action, hitting their head against a tree quite violently, then as humans we start wondering how does this bird avoid getting headaches or brain damage," says <a href="https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/sam-vanwassenbergh/" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(80,118,184);text-decoration-line:none">Sam Van Wassenbergh</a>, a researcher at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">In the past, scientists have <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(76)91477-X/fulltext" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(80,118,184);text-decoration-line:none">suggested</a> the bird's brain is protected from the impacts, perhaps by <a href="https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jsmea/49/3/49_3_390/_article" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(80,118,184);text-decoration-line:none">a skull that acts as a cushion</a>, or a beak that absorbs some of the force, or a tongue that wraps around the brain.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">But Van Wassenberg wasn't convinced.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">"Nobody has ever explained it very well, in my opinion," he says.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">So Van Wassenbergh led a team that set out to settle the issue using high speed video of woodpeckers in action.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">"We went to four different zoos in Europe where they had woodpeckers and we recorded them at very high frame rates, while they were pecking," he says.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">The videos, part of a study <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)00855-7" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(80,118,184);text-decoration-line:none">published</a> in the journal <em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Current Biology,</em> revealed some remarkable details.<br><br></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">For example, "they close their eyes at the moment they impact the wood," Van Wassenbergh says, to protect their eyes from splinters.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">The videos also showed that woodpeckers' beaks often get stuck in the wood. But they break free almost instantly, thanks to a clever beak design that provides independent motion of the upper and lower beak.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">What the videos did not show is any sign that the woodpecker's brain is somehow cushioned.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">"The way we see the head behaving is very rigid, like you would use a hammer hitting wood," Van Wassenbergh says.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">That means the organ repeatedly experiences deceleration that would cause a concussion in a human brain. Yet the woodpecker brain emerges unscathed, even after thousands of impacts in a single day.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">That is possible because a woodpecker's brain <em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">is</em> protected — not by cushioning, but by its tiny size and weight, Van Wassenbergh says.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">"An animal that has a smaller size can withstand higher decelerations," he says. "That's a biomechanical law."</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">That idea was <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00166.x" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(80,118,184);text-decoration-line:none">suggested</a> in 2006 by Lorna Gibson, a professor of biomechanical engineering at MIT. Now, it has been confirmed by Van Wassenbergh's high-speed video.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">A woodpecker's brain is about 700 times smaller than a human brain. "So that is why even the hardest hits we observed are not expected to cause any concussion," Van Wassenbergh says.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 1.17647em;padding:0px 15px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.7rem;line-height:1.70588;font-family:Georgia,serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(51,51,51);max-width:680px;float:none;width:auto">Or even a headache.</p></div></div>