'Birdbrain' benefits: How being an expert birdwatcher may boost cognition

Being an expert birdwatcher is more than a hobby. It’s a pastime that may alter the structure and function of your brain. And these changes may enhance cognition even as you age, new research suggests.

In a Canadian study of 58 adults, the brains of expert birders, compared with those of novices, were more dense in areas related to attention and perception. Such tissue density may indicate increased communication between neurons, and these structural differences were associated with more accurate bird identification.

The findings were published Monday in JNeurosci, the Journal of Neuroscience.

“Our brains are very malleable,” said lead author Erik Wing, who during the study was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute, part of the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto.

When you learn a new skill, your brain reorganizes itself in a process called neuroplasticity. Previous research has studied this phenomenon in people who’ve honed specialized skills, including athletes and musicians.

Wing said his team chose to study birders because their observation and identification of birds in their natural habitats involve a unique merging of cognitive areas.

“[Birding] combines fine-grain identification, visual search and attention to the immediate environment and sensitivity to motion, pattern detection, building these elaborate conceptual networks of different related species,” said Wing, now a research associate at York University in Toronto. “Also, you have to remember what you’re seeing and compare it to these internal templates,” or the images that are stored in our brains.

MRIs show brain differences

The expert group consisted of 29 people ages 24 to 75 who’d been recruited from organizations such as the Toronto Ornithological Club and Ontario Field Ornithologists. The 29 people in the novice group, ages 22 to 79, were recruited from the same birding groups, as well as outdoor clubs focused on activities such as hiking and gardening.

Expertise was determined by screening tests rather than years of experience, although some participants had been birding for close to half a century, Wing said.

During a bird-matching exercise, experts were more accurate than novices at identifying bird species both native and foreign to the Toronto area.

What surprised researchers, Wing said, was experts’ neurological activity in relation to bird identification.

The study used two kinds of MRI to look at participants’ brains: diffusion and functional.

The diffusion MRI, which measured brain structure, found that experts’ brains were more dense in areas associated with processes including working memory, spatial awareness and object recognition.

Functional MRI, on the other hand, allowed researchers to see which parts of the brain were active during the bird-matching exercise. Among experts, the same areas that showed structural differences were engaged during the task, particularly when they were challenged to identify foreign birds.

“It gives us a window into how these regions might be important for developing the expertise in the first place,” Wing said. “Then we can see [birders] actually deploy those types of skills to help them identify new, unfamiliar species of birds.”

Older birders reap cognitive benefits, too

Expert birders showed structural brain differences compared with novices — regardless of age.

The study doesn’t prove that birding prevents cognitive decline. Still, the results suggest that birding may support brain health in older adults, said Molly Mather, a clinical psychologist at the Mesulam Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, part of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“We have an aging population, not just in the United States but around the world, and we don’t quite yet have treatments that are able to stop or reverse any of the changes associated with aging or Alzheimer’s disease,” said Mather, who wasn’t involved in the research. “It’s of great value to be creating a real, scientific basis for what we can recommend and why.”

The cross-sectional study presents a chicken-vs.-egg conundrum, Mather said. That is, experts’ brain differences may not be a direct result of birding. It’s possible that people who already have these neurological characteristics are more skilled birders.

In addition, because study participants were recruited from naturalist organizations and outdoor groups, they may already live healthier, more active lifestyles.

Benefits of being in nature

Benjamin Katz, an associate professor in the department of human development and family science at Virginia Tech, said other facets of birding that have been shown to support brain health may also be at play. For example, birding involves being in nature, which is tied to improved attention; walking, which is tied to reduced risk of cognitive impairment; and, in some cases, socializing, which is tied to increased processing speed.

“Birding isn’t just a single thing,” said Katz, who wasn’t part of the study. “There are so many different cognitive aspects.”

Katz suggested that future research track novice birders over time to see if their brains change as they gain expertise.

“We don’t know what the baseline differences are,” he said. “You would need longitudinal data to make strong inferences about what birding itself is doing.”

The study authors wrote that their approach could be used to research possible brain reorganization in other complex skills.

“Our interests and experiences — especially the ones that we dedicate hours, hundreds of hours or decades to — leave an imprint on brain structure,” Wing said. “We can figure out how people can use these accumulated areas of knowledge that they’ve built up to support cognition across the entire lifespan.”