International Workshop for Young Researchers "knowing Self, Knowing Others" Programme

s of Work Shop Presentations Session 1: Self and others in nonhuman primates Session Chair: Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi (Kyoto University, Japan.) Matching of self and other possible mechanisms and functions of neonatal imitation in infant macaques Annika Paukner (NICHD, USA) Abstract Neonatal imitation, the phenomenon in which newborn human infants can accurately imitate facial gestures, has been studied for more than thirty years, yet the mechanisms and functions associated with neonatal imitation remain poorly understood. I will review our recent findings of neonatal imitation abilities in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), and show that neonatal imitation abilities in macaques are surprising similar to neonatal imitation abilities seen in humans. I will argue that there may be a common evolutionary root of this ability, which may have its basis in a facial mirror neuron circuit. Neonatal imitation appears to be linked to communicative signals, intersubjective exchanges and emotional development, which together may shape the foundation of socio-cognitive functioning in later life. Abstract Attentional perspective taking in chimpanzees and bonobos Evan MacLean (Duke University, USA)Attentional perspective taking in chimpanzees and bonobos Evan MacLean (Duke University, USA) The human-unique ability to acquire language relies on the early emergence of an understanding of attention in others. Although nonhuman apes understand much about others' perception, whether they understand others' attention is unknown. I will discuss three experiments that examined chimpanzees' and bonobos' ability to infer the target of an experimenter's attention under conditions that have been linked to word-learning in humans. In each experiment an actor vocalized excitedly while gazing ambiguously toward an object and a second location/item on the same visual plane. We manipulated whether the actor was familiar with the object before his emotional reaction by varying 1.) his physical orientation (facing vs. not facing object) 2.) the position of a visual barrier (blocking vs. not blocking actor's view of object), or 3.) the identity of the individual who visually inspected the object (actor vs. different individual). In each experiment we measured whether subjects looked at the object or the alternative target