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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

BBC reports [bbc.com] on a study published in PLOS ONE that used pigeons to classify mammograms:

Pigeons, with training, did just as well as humans in a study testing their ability to distinguish cancerous from healthy breast tissue samples. The pigeons were able to generalise what they learned, correctly spotting tumours in unseen microscope images.

They also did well at a particular mammogram-classifying task, though a second mammogram test (recognising suspicious lumps) proved too tricky. The pigeons' ability could help improve new image-based diagnosis technologies. It is described in the open access journal Plos One.

Likely no bigger than the tip of your index finger, the pigeon's brain nonetheless has impressive capabilities. "Pigeons can distinguish identities and emotional expressions on human faces, letters of the alphabet, misshapen pharmaceutical capsules, and even paintings by Monet vs Picasso," said Prof Edward Wasserman from the University of Iowa, a co-author of the study.

Pigeons (Columba livia) as Trainable Observers of Pathology and Radiology Breast Cancer Images [plos.org]

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