Innate sensitivity for self-propelled causal agency in newly hatched chicks

The idea that sensitivity to self-produced motion could lie at the foundations of the clear-cut divide that the brain operates between the two basic domains of inanimate and animate objects dates back to Aristotle. Sensitivity to self-propelled objects is apparent in human infants from around the fifth month of age, which leaves undetermined whether it is acquired by experience with animate objects or whether it is innately predisposed in the brain. Here, we report that newly hatched, visually naive domestic chicks presented with objects exhibiting motion either self-produced or caused by physical contact prefer to associate with self-propelled objects. This finding supports the idea of an evolutionarily ancient, predisposed neural mechanism in the vertebrate brain for the detection of animacy.