A woodpecker's brain takes a big hit with every peck: study
The brain of a woodpecker experiences a seemingly catastrophic impact
every time beak meets wood.
...
...
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.
That is possible because a woodpecker's brain is protected -- not by cushioning, but by its tiny size and weight, Van Wassenbergh says.
"An animal that has a smaller size can withstand higher
decelerations," he says. "That's a biomechanical law."
That idea was suggested in 2006 by Lorna Gibson, a professor of
biomechanical engineering at MIT. Now, it has been confirmed by Van Wassenbergh's high-speed video.
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.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1110581385/a-woodpeckers-brain-takes-a-big-hit-with-every-peck-study
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