Have We Met Before? Pigeons Recognise Familiar Human Faces

Stephan, Claudia; Wilkinson, Anna; Huber, Ludwig

doi:10.3184/175815512x13350970204867

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…This conclusion suggests that the first stages to develop, or evolve, face processing expertise may not be challenging for animals already possessing complex visual learning for foraging or navigation. Indeed, there have been many reports of different animal species recognizing either conspecifics (Tibbetts & Dale, 2007) or even human faces (Marzluff et al, 2012;Newport et al, 2016;Stephan et al, 2012). The acquisition of facial pattern recognition in paper wasps may consequently be promoted from visual learning abilities if the appropriate visual information is available.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This specific processing consists of analyzing the spatial relations among facial features and seems to require in mammals specific brain structures acquired through evolution (Kanwisher, 2000;Maurer et al, 2002), although other vertebrates like pigeons (Stephan, Wilkinson, & Huber, 2012), crows (Marzluff, Miyaoka, Minoshima, & Cross, 2012) or archerfish (Newport, Wallis, Reshitnyk, & Siebeck, 2016) appear to also be able to very reliably discriminate and recognize human faces. The proposal that a large brain is necessary for face processing and individual recognition has been challenged by evidence that an insect, the wasp Polistes fuscatus, can individually recognize nest mates from their facial visual mask (Tibbetts, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Avarguès‐Weber

d’Amaro²,

Metzler³

et al. 2017

AB&C

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-The capacity to recognize perceptually similar complex visual stimuli such as human faces has classically been thought to require a large primate, and/or mammalian brain with neurobiological adaptations. However, recent work suggests that the relatively small brain of a paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus, possesses specialized face processing capabilities. In parallel, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, has been shown to be able to rely on configural learning for extensive visual learning, thus converging with primate visual processing. Therefore, the honeybee may be able to recognize human faces, and show sophisticated learning performance due to its foraging lifestyle involving visiting and memorizing many flowers. We investigated the visual capacities of the widespread invasive wasp Vespula vulgaris, which is unlikely to have any specialization for face processing. Freely flying individual wasps were trained in an appetitive-aversive differential conditioning procedure to discriminate between perceptually similar human face images from a standard face recognition test. The wasps could then recognize the target face from novel dissimilar or similar human faces, but showed a significant drop in performance when the stimuli were rotated by 180°, thus paralleling results acquired on a similar protocol with honeybees. This result confirms that a general visual system can likely solve complex recognition tasks, the first stage to evolve a visual expertise system to face recognition, even in the absence of neurobiological or behavioral specialization.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Avarguès‐Weber

d’Amaro²,

Metzler³

et al. 2017

AB&C

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several species of invertebrates and vertebrates are able to discriminate among humans (Boysen 1994, Kendrick et al 2001, Davis 2002, Davis and Heslop 2004, Adachi et al 2007, Dittrich et al 2010. This hypothesis should, however, be properly tested and the cues (visual/ olfactory/auditory/the way experimenters handled birds) used to discriminate humans should be investigated with different masks to test the use of visage cues (Lefebvre et al 2004, Emery 2006, Iwaniuk et al 2009, Levey et al 2009, Marzluff et al 2010, Belguermi et al 2011, Lee et al 2011, Stephan et al 2012). Heterospecific discrimination would allow adjusting the defence investment and its costs for individuals , Marzluff et al 2010.…”

Section: Blood Sampling As a Negative Event Associated With The Expermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Montagu's harriers could have cognitive and perceptual abilities to discriminate human individuals, similarly to other species known for their high cognitive ability such as pigeons, parrots and corvids. This hypothesis should, however, be properly tested and the cues (visual/ olfactory/auditory/the way experimenters handled birds) used to discriminate humans should be investigated with different masks to test the use of visage cues (Lefebvre et al 2004, Emery 2006, Iwaniuk et al 2009, Levey et al 2009, Marzluff et al 2010, Belguermi et al 2011, Lee et al 2011, Stephan et al 2012.…”

Section: Blood Sampling As a Negative Event Associated With The Expermentioning

confidence: 99%

To change or not to change experimenters: caveats for repeated behavioural and physiological measures in Montagu's harrier

Rabdeau

Badenhausser

Moreau

et al. 2019

Journal of Avian Biology

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Animals facing anthropogenic disturbances may exhibit different anti‐predator responses depending on their perception of the risk. Experimental measures of behavioural and physiological traits may be impacted by the disturbance due to experimenter handlings and activities. In this study, we assessed the behavioural and physiological responses of Montagu's harrier chicks Circus pygargus from 14 nests, visited four times from hatching to fledgling by either the same (group I) or different (group NI) experimenters. Escape, aggressiveness and stress‐induced corticosterone concentration increased for both groups over time but chicks from group I showed a higher increase in their behavioural and physiological responses than chicks from group NI. This increase occurred after the second visit when experimenters took the first blood sampling on nestlings. Handling by the same experimenters throughout the study did not result in habituation but in sensitization. Our results suggest that Montagu's harrier nestlings may discriminate between the people who visit their nest and respond to experimenters’ identity. Therefore, we urge researchers working on behaviour and/or the physiology of stress including repeated measurements (such as animal personality studies for instance) to consider whether the experiments should or should not be conducted by the same experimenters (as usually done to minimize bias) as it can influence the outcomes of the experiments.

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“…Corvids, such as magpies, Pica pica , learn to recognize individual humans, Homo sapiens , based on their facial features and react aggressively to humans with whom they had negative experiences (Lee et al, ; Marzluff et al, ). Likewise, pigeons, Columba livia , avoid hostile people and prefer associating with safer people when feeding likely by recognizing facial features (Belguermi et al, ; Stephan, Wilkinson, & Huber, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, can discriminate between scents of individual house cats, Felis catus

Rohrer

Ferkin

2019

Ethology

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Individual discrimination provides animals the opportunity to adjust their exposure and behavior when interacting with other animals, both conspecifics and heterospecifics. Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, were exposed to scents of house cats, Felis catus. Our first experiment tested whether meadow voles could discriminate between caudal, interdigital, and facial scents produced by a cat with a habituation–dishabituation paradigm. Upon exposure to the familiar scent and a novel one, meadow voles did not investigate either scent more than the other. Our second experiment tested whether meadow voles discriminate between the facial scents of different cats. When exposed to a familiar scent of one cat and the unfamiliar scent of another cat, the meadow voles did discriminate and investigated the unfamiliar scent more than the familiar scent. The results suggest that meadow voles will discriminate between cats using any scent that the cat may inadvertently leave within the environment, thereby reducing the vole's risk of predation by that individual.

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Have We Met Before? Pigeons Recognise Familiar Human Faces

Cited by 33 publications

References 21 publications

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris

To change or not to change experimenters: caveats for repeated behavioural and physiological measures in Montagu's harrier

Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, can discriminate between scents of individual house cats, Felis catus

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