Head-cocking and visual perception in primates

Abstract

To examine the phyletic distribution and ontogeny of ‘head-cocking’ (rotating the cranium about the longitudinal body axis while orienting in a fixed direction) in primates, I conducted observations on 229 individuals of 40 different species. Head-cocking in primates typically occurs during visual inspection of objects. The response is primarily characteristic of diminutive species that lack ocular dominance columns in the visual striate cortex (e.g. marmosets, squirrel monkeys), and is most frequently observed during infancy.