Researchers tested brain patterns in crocodiles that were exposed to classical music. The complex sensory stimuli triggered a reaction astonishingly similar to birds and mammals. This implies the fundamental mechanisms by which neurons process sensory stimuli were established early in evolution. The results were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Using fMRI, the team from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, mapped areas of the brain that responded to music and found new neurons firing. Crocodiles are ancient vertebrates that form a link between dinosaurs and birds. Hence, understanding how they respond to complex stimuli can give insights into the process of evolution, indicating when certain structures and behaviours associated with assimilation of such stimuli formed in the brain.