Gaze following in Archosauria – Alligators and palaeognath birds suggest dinosaur origin of visual perspective taking

Zeiträg, Claudia; Reber, Stephan A.; Osvath, Mathias

doi:10.1101/2022.09.23.509198

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Only two of these studies have additionally investigated GGF. Evidence for GGF was neither found in bearded dragons (Siviter et al, 2017) nor American alligators (Zeiträg et al, 2022). Though only few studies on reptiles exist, the large phylogenetic difference between the tested species indicates that GFD is present in distantly related reptilian radiations.…”

Section: Gaze Following In Reptilesmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Perhaps surprisingly, a recent study discovered checking back in three species of palaeognath and one species of neognath birds (Zeiträg et al, 2022). This was the first-ever description of checking back in any bird species, while no such behavior was found in alligators.…”

Section: The Use Of Social Information Conveyed Through Gaze: Social ...mentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Only three non-corvid bird species have been tested in GGF. European starlings (Butler and Fernández-Juricic, 2014) and red junglefowl (Gallus gallus; Zeiträg et al, 2022) successfully tracked the gaze of a conspecific around a barrier, while Northern bald ibises (Loretto et al, 2009) failed to follow a conspecific's gaze geometrically. However, due to the many positive accounts of GGF in other bird species, it is possible that this negative account of GGF is caused by experimental artefacts.…”

Section: Gaze Following In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study (Zeiträg et al, 2022) reported the first accounts of gaze following in palaeognath birds. These birds are the less neurocognitively derived of the two major bird cladespalaeognaths and neognaths.…”

Section: Gaze Following In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They showed that this species co-orients with a conspecific's upward gaze. Since then, three more reptilian species have been found capable of GFD: bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps; Siviter et al, 2017), leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius; Simpson and O'Hara, 2019), and American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis; Zeiträg et al, 2022).…”

Section: Gaze Following In Reptilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze following: A socio-cognitive skill rooted in deep time

2022

Self Cite

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Social gaze has received much attention in social cognition research in both human and non-human animals. Gaze following appears to be a central skill for acquiring social information, such as the location of food and predators, but can also draw attention to important social interactions, which in turn promotes the evolution of more complex socio-cognitive processes such as theory of mind and social learning. In the past decades, a large number of studies has been conducted in this field introducing differing methodologies. Thereby, various factors influencing the results of gaze following experiments have been identified. This review provides an overview of the advances in the study of gaze following, but also highlights some limitations within the research area. The majority of gaze following studies on animals have focused on primates and canids, which limits evolutionary interpretations to only a few and closely related evolutionary lineages. This review incorporates new insights gained from previously understudied taxa, such as fishes, reptiles, and birds, but it will also provide a brief outline of mammal studies. We propose that the foundations of gaze following emerged early in evolutionary history. Basic, reflexive co-orienting responses might have already evolved in fishes, which would explain the ubiquity of gaze following seen in the amniotes. More complex skills, such as geometrical gaze following and the ability to form social predictions based on gaze, seem to have evolved separately at least two times and appear to be correlated with growing complexity in brain anatomy such as increased numbers of brain neurons. However, more studies on different taxa in key phylogenetic positions are needed to better understand the evolutionary history of this fundamental socio-cognitive skill.

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Section: Gaze Following In Reptilesmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: The Use Of Social Information Conveyed Through Gaze: Social ...mentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Gaze Following In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gaze Following In Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gaze Following In Reptilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze following: A socio-cognitive skill rooted in deep time

2022

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Differential responses to con- and allospecific visual cues in juvenile ravens (Corvus corax): the ontogeny of gaze following and social predictions

Zeiträg

Osvath

2023

Anim Cogn

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Gaze following refers to the ability to co-orient with others’ gaze directions. Ontogenetic studies on gaze following in animals have predominantly used human experimenters as demonstrators. It is, however, likely that developing animals are initially more attuned to individuals from their own species, which might result in differences in the ontogenetic onset of gaze following with human and conspecific demonstrators. “Checking back” is a signature behaviour in the gaze following repertoires of humans, apes, and some Old world monkeys. It is commonly interpreted as a representation of the referentiality of gaze and is thus diagnostic of social predictions. Recently, “checking back” has been discovered in four avian species, suggesting a shared skill among birds. To investigate effects of con- and allospecific demonstrators on gaze following responses, we studied visual co-orientations of four hand-raised juvenile common ravens (Corvus corax) with human and conspecific gaze cues. Moreover, we for the first time investigated “checking back” in ravens and compared the effects of con- and allospecific demonstrators on this behaviour. Ravens followed human and conspecific gaze with no apparent differences in ontogenetic onset, but after significantly longer latencies with human demonstrators. Subjects moreover already checked back at 30 days old and did so significantly more often with conspecific demonstrators. Our findings suggest differences in processing speed and social predictions of human and conspecific gazes, indicating an underlying neurocognitive mechanism attuned to social information gathering from conspecifics. We propose more studies using conspecific demonstrators to reveal the full gaze following potential of a species.

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Gaze tracking of large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) in a motion-capture system

Itahara,

Kano

2023

Preprint

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The visually guided behaviors of corvids (Corvidae) are often examined in previous studies because they provide important clues about their perception, attention, and cognition. However, the details regarding how they orient their heads toward the visual targets (or how they use their visual fields when attending to the visual targets) remain largely unclear. This study used a newly established motion capture system to examine the visual field use of large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos). Study 1 employed an established ophthalmoscopic reflex technique to identify the visual field configuration, including the binocular width and optic axes, as well as the degree of eye movement. Study 2 used the motion capture system to track the head movements of freely moving crows and examined how they oriented their reconstructed visual fields toward attention-getting objects. When visual targets were moving, the crows used their binocular visual fields, particularly around the projection of the beak-tip. When the visual targets stopped moving, crows frequently used non-binocular visual fields, particularly around the regions where their optic axes were found in Study 1 (close to their visual axes). On such occasions, the crows slightly preferred the right eye. Overall, the visual field use of crows is clearly predictable. Thus, while the untracked eye movements could introduce some level of uncertainty (typically within 15 degrees), we demonstrated the feasibility of inferring a crow's attentional focus by 3D tracking of their heads. Our system represents a promising initial step towards establishing gaze tracking methods for studying corvid behavior and cognition.

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Gaze following in Archosauria – Alligators and palaeognath birds suggest dinosaur origin of visual perspective taking

Cited by 4 publications

References 63 publications

Gaze following: A socio-cognitive skill rooted in deep time

Gaze following: A socio-cognitive skill rooted in deep time

Differential responses to con- and allospecific visual cues in juvenile ravens (Corvus corax): the ontogeny of gaze following and social predictions

Gaze tracking of large-billed crows (Corvus macrorhynchos) in a motion-capture system

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