Learning a new skill can reshape the brain, changing both its structure and activity. While previous research has demonstrated how learning influences the brain, scientists are still working to understand the effects of more complex expertise involving several cognitive processes at once. A new study suggests that birding, which combines visual perception, focused attention and memory, may provide important clues about how specialised skills affect the brain and potentially support cognitive health.
In research published in JNeurosci, a team led by Erik Wing of Baycrest Hospital compared the brains of 29 expert birders with those of 29 beginners matched by age and sex. Bird identification is a demanding cognitive task that requires people to notice subtle visual details, maintain concentration and retrieve stored information. The researchers believe their findings may also have implications for other forms of expertise that rely on similar combinations of attention, perception and memory.
The study found notable structural differences in brain regions associated with attention and perception. Expert birders had more structurally compact areas in these regions, and these differences were linked to greater accuracy when identifying birds. The findings suggest that years of developing and practising birding skills may be associated with measurable changes in the organisation of brain tissue involved in processing and recognising visual information.
Wing explained that the researchers assessed the diffusion of water molecules within the brain. “One way of putting it is that there’s more constraint on where water goes in the brains of experts,” he said. This greater constraint was interpreted as evidence of a more compact brain structure in certain areas. Some of these regions also appeared to support the identification and memory of less familiar birds, including species that were not local to the birders’ home area.
Importantly, the structural differences in attention- and perception-related brain regions were also observed among older expert birders. This raises the possibility that acquiring and maintaining complex skills could have cognitive benefits later in life. “Acquiring skills from birding could be beneficial for cognition as people age,” Wing said. Researchers are now investigating whether older adults can apply the cognitive abilities developed through birding to tasks that extend beyond their area of expertise.
Early findings suggest these benefits may reach into other forms of memory. Older expert birders were better than beginners at remembering arbitrary faces that had been paired with birds, indicating that established knowledge may help people form and retrieve new associations. The results suggest that connecting unfamiliar information with a well-developed area of expertise could improve recall even outside that specific domain. Researchers hope further studies will clarify whether complex hobbies such as birding can help strengthen cognitive abilities and support brain function as people age.
More information: Erik Wing et al, The Tuned Cortex: Convergent Expertise-Related Structural and Functional Remodeling across the Adult Lifespan, JNeurosci. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1307-25.2026
Journal information: JNeurosci Provided by Society for Neuroscience
