Visually inexperienced chicks exhibit spontaneous preference for biological motion patterns

When only a small number of points of light attached to the torso and limbs of a moving organism are visible, the animation correctly conveys the animal's activity. Here we report that newly hatched chicks, reared and hatched in darkness, at their first exposure to point-light animation sequenc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS biology 2005-07, Vol.3 (7), p.e208-e208
Main Authors: Vallortigara, Giorgio, Regolin, Lucia, Marconato, Fabio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Behavior
Animals
Animation
Chicken
Chickens
Darkness
Experiments
Imprinting, Psychological
Light
Motion Perception
Motor Activity
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Preferences
Psychology
Vision, Ocular - physiology
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Summary:When only a small number of points of light attached to the torso and limbs of a moving organism are visible, the animation correctly conveys the animal's activity. Here we report that newly hatched chicks, reared and hatched in darkness, at their first exposure to point-light animation sequences, exhibit a spontaneous preference to approach biological motion patterns. Intriguingly, this predisposition is not specific for the motion of a hen, but extends to the pattern of motion of other vertebrates, even to that of a potential predator such as a cat. The predisposition seems to reflect the existence of a mechanism in the brain aimed at orienting the young animal towards objects that move semi-rigidly (as vertebrate animals do), thus facilitating learning, i.e., through imprinting, about their more specific features of motion.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030208