title: The perception of self in birds.
abstract: The perception of self is an important topic in several disciplines such as ethology, behavioral ecology, psychology, developmental and cognitive neuroscience. Self-perception is investigated by experimentally exposing different species of animals to self-stimuli such as their own image, smell or vocalizations. Here we review more than one hundred studies using these methods in birds, a taxonomic group that exhibits a rich diversity regarding ecology and behavior. Exposure to self-image is the main method for studying self-recognition, while exposing birds to their own smell is generally used for the investigation of homing or odor-based kin discrimination. Self-produced vocalizations - especially in oscine songbirds - are used as stimuli for understanding the mechanisms of vocal coding/decoding both at the neural and at the behavioral levels. With this review, we highlight the necessity to study the perception of self in animals cross-modally and to consider the role of experience and development, aspects that can be easily monitored in captive populations of birds.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, LECD EA3456, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, 200 avenue de la République, F92001 Nanterre cedex, France; Institut Universitaire de France, France. Electronic address: sebastien.deregnaucourt@u-paris10.fr.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Derégnaucourt
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ethologie Cognition Développement, LECD EA3456, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, 200 avenue de la République, F92001 Nanterre cedex, France.
authors.forename: Dalila
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bovet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds; D010465:Perception; D012649:Self Concept; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: Animal cognition; Aves; Birds; Bird’s Own Song; Comparative psychology; Consciousness; Mirror self recognition; Neuro-ethology; Odor recognition; Oscine songbirds; Recognition; Self; Song playback; Vocal labeling; Vocal signature; Vocalizations; awareness