Crows cross-modally recognize group members but not non-group members

Abstract

Recognizing other individuals by integrating different sensory modalities is a crucial ability of social animals, including humans. Although cross-modal individual recognition has been demonstrated in mammals, the extent of its use by birds remains unknown. Herein, we report the first evidence of cross-modal recognition of group members by a highly social bird, the large-billed crow (Corvus macrorhynchos). A cross-modal expectancy violation paradigm was used to test whether crows were sensitive to identity congruence between visual presentation of a group member and the subsequent playback of a contact call. Crows looked more rapidly and for a longer duration when the visual and auditory stimuli were incongruent than when congruent. Moreover, these responses were not observed with non-group member stimuli. These results indicate that crows spontaneously associate visual and auditory information of group members but not of non-group members, which is a demonstration of cross-modal audiovisual recognition of group members in birds.

New perspectives in gaze sensitivity research

“…This work could be expanded to ask whether individuals are capable of selectively reducing or increasing gaze following responses depending on who is providing the gaze cue. Being able to recognize individuals and remember past interactions is an important part of social living (e.g., Humphreys, 1976;Kondo, Izawa, & Watanabe, 2012) and could be applied in a gaze following context. Consider individual A, a typically poor producer that rarely spots items of interest.…”

Cross-modal individual recognition in wild African lions

“…Cross-modal sensory perception is the ability to integrate information from multiple senses-in the case of individual recognition, this often involves matching vocal and visual cues, which may be demonstrated through experiments in which subjects detect a mismatch when the cues do not correspond [5,7]. While there is now direct evidence for cross-modal recognition in a range of species tested in captive or domestic settings [5,[7][8][9], this ability has not been directly shown in the wild during natural social communication among conspecifics [6]. Such investigations are facilitated by a study species where repeated social interactions lead to important long-term social relationships, in which communication involves multiple sensory modalities, and where communication signals are known to provide familiarity cues as well as potential cues to identity.…”

“…However, while individual recognition is thought to be a widespread ability [3], providing robust scientific support for recognition at the level of the individual has proved difficult [4,5]. 'True' individual recognition strictly constitutes the identification of a specific individual, according to individually distinct cues, and the placement of that individual within a society of many others [6].…”

Reconhecimento de emoções em cães domésticos (Canis familiaris): percepção de pistas faciais e auditivas na comunicação intra e interespecífica

“…Por exemplo, animais podem aprender a discriminar estímulos visuais usando características físicas de imagens sem necessariamente reconhecer os objetos representados nas figuras . Devido a este aspecto, o reconhecimento verdadeiro pode ser definido como a associação de pistas múltiplas dentro e entre modalidades (Kondo et al, 2012) -isto iria excluir qualquer discriminação física simples. É possível, então, estender a ideia do reconhecimento verdadeiro para a percepção cross modal, uma vez que esta envolve informações de diferentes canais sensoriais.…”

“…Para animais sociais, a integração cross-modal para reconhecimento de indivíduos e objetos deve ser altamente funcional, uma vez que facilita os processos de leitura do ambiente e proporciona uma experiência perceptual coerente (Taylor et al, 2011 Faragó et al, 2010a;Taylor et al, 2011) e em cavalos domésticos (Lampe & Andre, 2012), além de corvos (Kondo et al, 2012). Além disso, as áreas cerebrais responsáveis pela integração da informação audiovisual e regiões de cérebro sabidas multissensoriais já foram encontradas em primatas não humanos (Proops et al, 2009).…”