Mimicry-dependent lateralization in the visual inspection of foreign eggs by American robins.

ABSTRACT: Brain lateralization, or the specialization of function in the left versus right brain hemispheres, has been found in a variety of lineages in contexts ranging from foraging to social and sexual behaviours, including the recognition of conspecific social partners. Here we studied whether the recognition and rejection of avian brood parasitic eggs, another context for species recognition, may also involve lateralized visual processing. We focused on American robins (Turdus migratorius), an egg-rejecter host to occasional brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and tested if robins preferentially used one visual hemifield over the other to inspect mimetic versus non-mimetic model eggs. At the population level, robins showed a significantly lateralized absolute eyedness ind

SUBMITTER: Scharf HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6684974 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature