Mgr. Pavel Němec, Ph.D.
Project of Mgr. Pavel Něměc, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague revealed the anatomical nature of bird intelligence and therefore solved the mystery why some birds are extremely intelligent although their brains are small. The research of Mgr. Pavel Němec, Ph.D. proved that small brains of birds contain substantial number of neurons. Despite the fact that the largest brains of Passeriformes weigh around 16 grams and the largest brains of parrots weigh about 25 grams, the brains contain equal number of neurones as primate brains which are significantly larger. This research proved that neither absolute nor relative size of the brain is a proper measure of cognitive abilities. It is rather dependent on the cellular composition and neural density. The results of the research were reported by the media worldwide.