G Vallortigara

Summary

Affiliation: University of Trieste
Country: Italy

Publications

  1. ncbi The evolutionary psychology of left and right: costs and benefits of lateralization
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Dev Psychobiol 48:418-27. 2006
  2. ncbi Comparative neuropsychology of the dual brain: a stroll through animals' left and right perceptual worlds
    G Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    Brain Lang 73:189-219. 2000
  3. ncbi How birds use their eyes: Opposite left-right specialization for the lateral and frontal visual hemifield in the domestic chick
    G Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Trieste, Trieste 34123, Italy
    Curr Biol 11:29-33. 2001
  4. ncbi Visually inexperienced chicks exhibit spontaneous preference for biological motion patterns
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    PLoS Biol 3:e208. 2005
  5. ncbi Reorientation by geometric and landmark information in environments of different size
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy
    Dev Sci 8:393-401. 2005
  6. ncbi Survival with an asymmetrical brain: advantages and disadvantages of cerebral lateralization
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Sci 28:575-89; discussion 589-633. 2005
  7. ncbi Separate geometric and non-geometric modules for spatial reorientation: evidence from a lopsided animal brain
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    J Cogn Neurosci 16:390-400. 2004
  8. ncbi Spatial cognition based on geometry and landmarks in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus)
    A Della Chiesa
    Department of Psychology and BRAIN Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio, 12, 34100 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 175:119-27. 2006
  9. ncbi Effects of light stimulation of embryos on the use of position-specific and object-specific cues in binocular and monocular domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 163:10-7. 2005
  10. ncbi Multiple landmarks, the encoding of environmental geometry and the spatial logics of a dual brain
    A Della Chiesa
    Department of Psychology and B.R.A.I.N. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 9:281-93. 2006

Collaborators

Detail Information

Publications53

  1. ncbi The evolutionary psychology of left and right: costs and benefits of lateralization
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Dev Psychobiol 48:418-27. 2006
    ..Thus, the population structure of lateralization may result from genes specifying the direction of asymmetries which have been selected under "social" pressures...
  2. ncbi Comparative neuropsychology of the dual brain: a stroll through animals' left and right perceptual worlds
    G Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    Brain Lang 73:189-219. 2000
    ..Finally, speculations about the evolutionary origins and possible adaptive advantages of perceptual asymmetries in vertebrates are presented...
  3. ncbi How birds use their eyes: Opposite left-right specialization for the lateral and frontal visual hemifield in the domestic chick
    G Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Trieste, Trieste 34123, Italy
    Curr Biol 11:29-33. 2001
    ....
  4. ncbi Visually inexperienced chicks exhibit spontaneous preference for biological motion patterns
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    PLoS Biol 3:e208. 2005
    ..e., through imprinting, about their more specific features of motion...
  5. ncbi Reorientation by geometric and landmark information in environments of different size
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy
    Dev Sci 8:393-401. 2005
    ..These findings suggest that the reliance of the use of geometric information on the spatial scale of the environment is not restricted to the human species...
  6. ncbi Survival with an asymmetrical brain: advantages and disadvantages of cerebral lateralization
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Sci 28:575-89; discussion 589-633. 2005
    ....
  7. ncbi Separate geometric and non-geometric modules for spatial reorientation: evidence from a lopsided animal brain
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    J Cogn Neurosci 16:390-400. 2004
    ....
  8. ncbi Spatial cognition based on geometry and landmarks in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus)
    A Della Chiesa
    Department of Psychology and BRAIN Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio, 12, 34100 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 175:119-27. 2006
    ..However, chicks do not seem to perceive the array as a whole configuration, rather they tend to rely only on single landmarks to locate the goal...
  9. ncbi Effects of light stimulation of embryos on the use of position-specific and object-specific cues in binocular and monocular domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 163:10-7. 2005
    ..These results suggest that light exposure of the embryo makes neural mechanisms that do not receive direct visual input (i.e., those of the occluded side) more available to be used in assessment of novelty...
  10. ncbi Multiple landmarks, the encoding of environmental geometry and the spatial logics of a dual brain
    A Della Chiesa
    Department of Psychology and B.R.A.I.N. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S. Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 9:281-93. 2006
    ....
  11. ncbi Spatial reorientation: the effects of space size on the encoding of landmark and geometry information
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123, Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 10:159-68. 2007
    ....
  12. ncbi Is there an innate geometric module? Effects of experience with angular geometric cues on spatial re-orientation based on the shape of the environment
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34134 Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 11:139-46. 2008
    ....
  13. ncbi Detour behaviour in three species of birds: quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria)
    Paolo Zucca
    Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 8:122-8. 2005
    ..It is suggested that these species differences can be accounted for in terms of adaptation to a terrestrial or aerial environment...
  14. ncbi Spatial reorientation in large and small enclosures: comparative and developmental perspectives
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    Cogn Process 9:229-38. 2008
    ..Evidence in non-human animals and in human infants for primacy in encoding either geometric or landmark information depending on the size of the environment is reviewed, together with possible theoretical accounts of this phenomenon...
  15. ncbi Effects of embryonic light stimulation on the ability to discriminate left from right in the domestic chick
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, I 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 198:240-6. 2009
    ..These results provide direct evidence that modulation of the strength of visual lateralization may affect left-right discrimination abilities...
  16. ncbi Experience and geometry: controlled-rearing studies with chicks
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 13:463-70. 2010
    ..These findings suggest that, at least for this highly precocial species, the ability to deal with geometry seems to depend more on predisposed mechanisms than on learning and experience after hatching...
  17. ncbi Animals' representation of enclosed spaces: evidence for use of a similar frame of reference following different disorientation procedures in the domestic chick (Gallus gallus)
    Cinzia Chiandetti
    Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
    J Comp Psychol 124:139-46. 2010
    ..Here, the authors show that newborn domestic chicks (Gallus gallus) can reorient effectively irrespective of the specific disorienting procedure applied. The results are discussed in comparative and developmental perspectives...
  18. ncbi Intraspecific competition and coordination in the evolution of lateralization
    Stefano Ghirlanda
    Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
    Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364:861-6. 2009
    ....
  19. ncbi Piagetian object permanence and its development in Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius)
    Paolo Zucca
    Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Animal Cognition and Comparative Neuroscience, Via S Anastasio 12, 34100, Trieste, Italy
    Anim Cogn 10:243-58. 2007
    ..The results of these experiments support the idea that piagetian stages of cognitive development exist in avian species and that they progress through relatively fixed sequences...
  20. ncbi Behavioural lateralization in sheep (Ovis aries)
    Elisabetta Versace
    Department of Psychology and B R A I N Centre for Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Via S Anastasio 12, 34123 Trieste, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 184:72-80. 2007
    ..Moreover, the results fit the general hypothesis that population-level asymmetries are more likely to occur in tasks that require social coordination among behaviourally asymmetric individuals...
  21. ncbi A left-sided visuospatial bias in birds
    Bettina Diekamp
    Curr Biol 15:R372-3. 2005
  22. ncbi Domestic chicks perceive stereokinetic illusions
    Elena Clara
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
    Perception 35:983-92. 2006
    ..Non-imprinted chicks did not show any preference. These results suggest that domestic chicks experience stereokinetic illusions...
  23. ncbi Chicks discriminate human gaze with their right hemisphere
    Orsola Rosa Salva
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 177:15-21. 2007
    ..The results are discussed in relation to evidence for a right hemisphere involvement in fear responses and detection of predators in the vertebrate brain...
  24. ncbi Preference for symmetry is experience dependent in newborn chicks (Gallus gallus)
    Elena Clara
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
    J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 33:12-20. 2007
    ..Possible explanations are discussed for the late emergence of the preference for symmetry and for the preference for asymmetry found in naïve chicks...
  25. ncbi Hemispheric differences in the recognition of partly occluded objects by newly hatched domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)
    Lucia Regolin
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy
    Anim Cogn 7:162-70. 2004
    ....
  26. ncbi Olfactory lateralization in homing pigeons: initial orientation of birds receiving a unilateral olfactory input
    Anna Gagliardo
    Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita di Pisa, Via A Volta 6, I 56126 Pisa, Italy
    Eur J Neurosci 25:1511-6. 2007
    ..The observed asymmetry in favour of the right nostril might be due to projections from the olfactory bulbs to the contralateral globus pallidum, a structure involved in motor responses...
  27. ncbi Separate processing mechanisms for encoding of geometric and landmark information in the avian hippocampus
    Luca Tommasi
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Eur J Neurosci 17:1695-702. 2003
    ..These findings provide evidence that the left and right avian hippocampi play different roles in spatial cognition, a phenomenon which had been documented previously only for the human hippocampus...
  28. ncbi Rudimental numerical competence in 5-day-old domestic chicks (Gallus gallus): identification of ordinal position
    Rosa Rugani
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
    J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 33:21-31. 2007
    ..Overall, young chicks seemed to use ordinality when required to identify a target by its numerical serial position...
  29. ncbi Light exposure of the chick embryo influences monocular sleep
    Daniela Bobbo
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 134:447-66. 2002
    ....
  30. ncbi Modularity and spatial reorientation in a simple mind: encoding of geometric and nongeometric properties of a spatial environment by fish
    Valeria Anna Sovrano
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Cognition 85:B51-9. 2002
    ....
  31. ncbi Hemispheric processing of landmark and geometric information in male and female domestic chicks (Gallus gallus)
    Luca Tommasi
    Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Adolf Lorenz Gasse 2, A 3422 Altenberg, Austria
    Behav Brain Res 155:85-96. 2004
    ..Males rely upon local information (beacon) more than females, also showing stronger encoding of this information in their left hemisphere than their right hemisphere...
  32. ncbi Visual lateralisation, form preferences, and secondary imprinting in the domestic chick
    Elena Clara
    University of Padua, Italy
    Laterality 10:487-502. 2005
    ..Left- and right-eyed chicks showed different choice, with the latter preferring the cylinder, thus showing that the eye-asymmetry was in some way peculiar to the secondary imprinting procedure...
  33. ncbi A lateralized avian hippocampus: preferential role of the left hippocampal formation in homing pigeon sun compass-based spatial learning
    Anna Gagliardo
    Department of Ethology Ecology and Evolution, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy
    Eur J Neurosci 22:2549-59. 2005
    ..However, preferential use of the sun compass for learning requires an intact right HF. The data support the hypothesis that the left and right HF make different but complementary contributions toward avian spatial cognition...
  34. ncbi The effects of early post-hatching changes of imprinting object on the pattern of monocular/unihemispheric sleep of domestic chicks
    Daniela Bobbo
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 170:23-8. 2006
    ....
  35. ncbi Modularity as a fish (Xenotoca eiseni) views it: conjoining geometric and nongeometric information for spatial reorientation
    Valeria Anna Sovrano
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
    J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 29:199-210. 2003
    ....
  36. ncbi Effects of social interaction on monocular/unihemispheric sleep in male and female domestic chicks
    Daniela Bobbo
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Biol Psychol 73:213-9. 2006
    ..Eye-opening during sleep might be connected with the hemisphere that was not or was less activated during wakefulness or with lateralization of the environment monitoring against predation...
  37. ncbi How fish do geometry in large and in small spaces
    Valeria Anna Sovrano
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia, 8, 35131, Padova, Italy
    Anim Cogn 10:47-54. 2007
    ..Possible reasons for species differences in the use of geometric and non-geometric information are discussed...
  38. ncbi Working memory in the chick: parallel and lateralized mechanisms for encoding of object- and position-specific information
    Lucia Regolin
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 157:1-9. 2005
    ....
  39. ncbi Dissecting the geometric module: a sense linkage for metric and landmark information in animals' spatial reorientation
    Valeria Anna Sovrano
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
    Psychol Sci 17:616-21. 2006
    ..On the basis of these findings, we propose a simple model that can explain the effects of room size on spatial reorientation...
  40. ncbi Monocular-unihemispheric sleep and visual discrimination learning in the domestic chick
    Gian G Mascetti
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padova, Italy
    Exp Brain Res 176:70-84. 2007
    ..It is suggested that the Mo-Un sleep pattern may be a type of local sleep associated with a process of functional recovery in the hemisphere which was mainly engaged during training trials...
  41. ncbi Functional asymmetry of left and right avian piriform cortex in homing pigeons' navigation
    Anna Gagliardo
    Dipartimento di Etologia, Ecologia ed Evoluzione, Universita di Pisa, Via A Volta 6, I 56126 Pisa, Italy
    Eur J Neurosci 22:189-94. 2005
    ..However, both lesioned groups were significantly slower than controls in flying back to the home loft, showing that the integrity of both sides of the piriform cortex is necessary to accomplish the whole homing process...
  42. ncbi From antenna to antenna: lateral shift of olfactory memory recall by honeybees
    Lesley J Rogers
    Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
    PLoS ONE 3:e2340. 2008
    ..These findings therefore seem to call for remarkable parallel evolution and suggest that the proper functioning of memory formation in a bilateral animal, either vertebrate or invertebrate, requires lateralization of processing...
  43. ncbi Advantages of having a lateralized brain
    Lesley J Rogers
    Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
    Proc Biol Sci 271:S420-2. 2004
    ..This finding suggests that cerebral lateralization enhances brain efficiency in cognitive tasks that demand the simultaneous but different use of both hemispheres...
  44. ncbi Bilateral participation of the hippocampus in familiar landmark navigation by homing pigeons
    Anna Gagliardo
    Dipartimento di Etologia, Ecologia ed Evoluzione, Universita di Pisa, Via A Volta 6, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 136:201-9. 2002
    ..We conclude that both the left and RHF are necessary if pilotage-like, familiar landmark navigation is to be learned or preferentially used for navigation...
  45. ncbi Animals' use of landmarks and metric information to reorient: effects of the size of the experimental space
    Valeria Anna Sovrano
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia, 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Cognition 97:121-33. 2005
    ..The hypothesis is discussed that organisms are prepared to use only distant featural information as landmarks...
  46. ncbi Lateralized righting behavior in the tortoise (Testudo hermanni)
    Gionata Stancher
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 173:315-9. 2006
    ..Consistency of responses at retest was also observed. The results are discussed with reference to the implications for the evolution of brain lateralization in vertebrates...
  47. ncbi Cerebral lateralization: a common theme in the organization of the vertebrate brain
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Cortex 42:5-7. 2006
  48. ncbi Monocular sleep following passive avoidance learning in chicks
    Daniela Bobbo
    Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 178:305-12. 2007
    ..g. predators, presence of the mother hen and siblings) and any arousal-producing event that would occur before a sleep episode tends to increase the likelihood of monocular sleeping...
  49. ncbi The evolution of brain lateralization: a game-theoretical analysis of population structure
    Stefano Ghirlanda
    Group for Interdisciplinary Cultural Research, Stockholm University, Kräftriket 7B, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
    Proc Biol Sci 271:853-7. 2004
    ..Brain and behavioural lateralization, as we know it in humans and other vertebrates, may have evolved under basically 'social' selection pressures...
  50. ncbi Monocular sleep in male domestic chicks
    Gian Gastone Mascetti
    Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Universita di Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 153:447-52. 2004
    ..In contrast, the removal of the imprinting object on day 8 did not cause any change in the pattern of monocular sleep. Differences with respect to sleeping patterns previously observed in females chicks are discussed...
  51. ncbi Perception of the stereokinetic illusion by the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)
    Elena Clara
    Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia
    Anim Cogn 10:135-40. 2007
    ..Hence, the common marmosets behaved as if they could perceive stereokinetic illusions...
  52. ncbi Gravity bias in the interpretation of biological motion by inexperienced chicks
    Giorgio Vallortigara
    Department of Psychology and BRAIN Centre for Neuroscience, University of Triest, Italy
    Curr Biol 16:R279-80. 2006
  53. ncbi Influence of behavioural lateralization on interleukin-2 and interleukin-6 gene expression in dogs before and after immunization with rabies vaccine
    Angelo Quaranta
    Department of Animal Production, University of Bari, Strada Prov le per Casamassima, km 3, 70010 Valenzano Ba, Italy
    Behav Brain Res 186:256-60. 2008
    ....