Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Mirrors are very relevant tools for our human identities: from those built with lead in the fifteenth century to the frontal camera of the mobile, these gadgets have been very useful to let us know who, how or what we are. However, it might be possible not all species on the planet see the same as we do. In this research we try to understand what the rodents see in a mirror and, contrary to what was already published, we found mirrors are not aversive stimuli for mice. As an assumption, we could say they see at the beginning something similar to a friend mate in the distance, then after approaching, they could see a bright wall with a sense of profundity. But they do not see themselves. Likewise, as the gorillas on the top of the leafy grove in the arboreality of their common environment, they do not see the image of the mirror as themselves, because their perception is aimed to see other stimuli to survive. Social sense of rodents could have their main value for their own identity and survival: they might not see themselves in the reflex, which could require other brain structures. Sense of social beings vs individual beings as different stages in the evolutionary steps of the mammalian the brain is discussed.
Authors: Alicia Garcia-Falgueras, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Paseo de Recoletos 20-22, 28001, Madrid
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4405821390