Do Birds Dream?

Do birds dream? Scientists at the University of Chicago observed that they exhibit REM sleep, with a burst of activity in a brain region called the robustus archistralis (RA), which is active when they're singing. 

According to the Chicago Tribune, "they played recordings of them singing while the birds were awake, asleep, and knocked out with anesthesia. The awake birds showed no response—just their normal, oscillating patterns. But the sleeping or unconscious birds showed strong bursts of activity from the RA. When they were awakened, the signals went back to normal. This is surprising because the same neurons that show no response during the day have these strong responses to the bird's own song when they are asleep."

They concluded that during their periods of sleep, these zebra finches must be processing the songs they learned during waking consciousness.