Work

Visually Inexperienced Chicks Exhibit Spontaneous Preference for Biological Motion Patterns

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: 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.

Source: PLoS Biology

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030208

Authors: Giorgio Vallortigara, Lucia Regolin, Fabio Marconato

Institutions: University of Trieste, University of Padua

Language: English

Topic: Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $5,500

Funder: Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca