Re: Parrot worked to death?

"Joanne" <Joanne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:13em6j66hf4c9bd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "M.J." <M.J.@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:8zEGi.76$6p6.75@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> I strongly suspect that recent efforts to take the birds
>> thinking to a human like level of abstraction ('compound words')
>> may have dealt Alex a final blow.  Complex abstract thinking
>> is the stuff of most advanced creatures- primates/humans.
>>
>> Dr.Pepperberg just started to introduce Alex's brain fully to
>> this new world of more complex human like thinking.
>>
>> M.J.
>
> If you are right, wouldn't a necropsy have determined some abnormal
brain 
> tissue physiology?  You can be sure this bird didn't get the slam-bam
type 
> of necropsy most pets and breeders do.

Who knows?

Even if, he might not have displayed any obvious pathology
read: in an anatomical sense there might have been nothing
wrong, yet on a functional level his brain function might have
been seriously undermined in many ways.

For, example, a regular human brain MRI shows anatomy,
say a tumor, lesion, etc, (necropsy would show that), but it
takes a live PET scan to show if the organ is functioning
properly.

I don't think Alex was given such scans, and even if there
would be few references to compare it to. Who knows what
a properly functioning parrot brain PET scan image looks like?


> I hope they preserved his brain tissue (bet they did) for future, more 
> advanced testing as it becomes available.

I hope too.


> I wonder if they would have admitted to something as simple as a virus
or 
> an infection brought in by an assistant's lack of hygiene. (You know me
- 
> Queen of "the germs are out to get our darlings" theory!)

I think they would admit to it if that was the case.

I sincerely think that Alexes brain over time might
have reached a functional/metabolic limit to the amount
of intense processing that it was capable of and this
caused or contributed in some way to his early demise.

M.J.


> -- 
> Sincerely,
> Joanne
>
> If it's right for you, then it's right, . . . . . for you!!!
>
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