Cognitive scientists, social psychologists, computer scientists, neuroscientists, ethologists
and many others have all wondered how brains detect and interpret the motion of living …

In birds, parental care and attachment period differ widely depending on the species
(altricial or precocial), developmental strategies, and life history traits. In most bird species …

We analysed research that makes use of precocial species as animal models to describe the
interaction of predisposed mechanisms and environmental factors in early learning, in …

Mother-young bonding is a process by which the young establish social preferences for their
mother. It fosters reproductive success and the survival of offspring by providing food, heat …

Neonates of different species are born with a set of predispositions that influence their early
orienting responses toward the first stimuli encountered in their life. Human neonates and …

The detection of animate beings at the onset of life is important for phylogenetically distant
species, such as birds and primates. Naïve chicks preferentially approach a stimulus …

In order to detect the presence of a living creature in the environment, an organism can rely
on several types of features, or cues, that trigger the automatic detection of animacy. These …

For inexperienced brains, some stimuli are more attractive than others. Human neonates
and newly hatched chicks preferentially orient towards face-like stimuli, biological motion …

Filial imprinting has become a model for understanding memory, learning and social
behaviour in neonate animals. This mechanism allows the youngs of precocial bird species …

Unlearned tendencies to approach animate creatures are of great adaptive value, especially
for nidifugous social birds that need to react to the presence of potential social companions …