Headless Cock

[Nox51]

I have witnessed this when our neighbors slaughter their chickens. What I have yet to figure out is why the headless chickens can do this? Think about this. Running around requires balance, brain impulses to the muscles, etc. If I had not known they run around without their heads, I would have guessed they would have fell over and perhaps wiggled their feet for a bit. But to do all these brain intensive issues, has puzzled me for quite some time. Especially when you see a chicken without a head fall over and get back up. How can they do this without a head?

You got the basic thinking right. The higher brain is removed but the brain stem is left intact. A lot of the signal processing and autonomic action is done at the level of the brain stem rather than higher brain. It really is a matter of where it is cut. I wonder how much of a cerebellum is left intact too.

I'd imagine they chickens have a fairly elongated brain/brainstem that allows you to cut they "head" off but leave part of the brain intact.

How do you define what is a head anyway?