Exploring how animals perceive embodiment
Pigeons, Robots, and the Nature of Self
A Study Using teleoperated robotics.
At Oomvelt, we investigate how minds—both human and non-human—experience their own bodies. Our latest study asks a surprising question: Can a pigeon feel embodied in a robot? By blending neuroscience, robotics, and behavioral science, we are extending our inquiry into the foundations of perception and selfhood.
How the Study Works
In this experiment, pigeons are trained to teleoperate a Misty II robot through a physical environment. The birds guide the robot toward familiar goals, such as locating and retrieving a food item they have been previously conditioned to seek. While the pigeon navigates, the robot acts as its “body” in the world, carrying out tasks under its control.
We then introduce sudden distractions—unexpected movements, noises, or obstacles—while the pigeon is immersed in controlling the robot. The key question we are investigating is:
Does the pigeon react as though the robot’s body is its own?
Much like humans startle at an on-screen avatar’s peril in a video game, pigeons may reveal whether they experience a similar embodied illusion.
A secondary study extends this question: Can pigeons translate their first-person teleoperation experience into a higher-level cognitive map? In other words, after “being” inside the robot, can they understand the environment from an overhead, bird’s-eye view?
WHY THIS MATTERS
Understanding how animals experience embodiment has profound implications. If pigeons—and perhaps other species—can project their sense of self into robotic surrogates, it challenges long-held assumptions about the uniqueness of human embodiment and consciousness. It also sheds light on the flexibility of animal cognition, the origins of perspective-taking, and the building blocks of what we call “self-awareness”.
By studying pigeons and robots together, we aim to illuminate the deep continuity between species and the mechanisms that underlie how all minds—avian, human, or artificial—navigate the boundary between body and self.
