Social experience, vocal learning and social cognition in the European starling, Sturnus vulgaris

International audienceEuropean starlings are well known for their rich and varied social life. Recent studies reveal a social organization based on same-sex preferences, spatial proximity and vocal sharing in captive groups. Much less is known about social cognition and the possible role of social experience on the development of cognitive abilities. Experimental results described here show how the social conditions under which starlings are raised affect not only the quality of vocal copying (for the same auditory experience), but also perception of mirror images, relationships to people and organization of neuronal selectivity in the brain. Thus hand-raised birds placed either in groups with adults, or in pairs as young naive birds, or in isolation, react very differently when confronted with familiar or unfamiliar humans. Intraspecific social experience, therefore, influences the relationships of birds with their environment, including interspecific interactions. Different modalities are involved and include the visual and auditory worlds, as revealed by a mirror test and electrophysiology respectively