Franck Péron

PhD Student
(under the direction of D. Bovet and L. Nagle)


Phone : (33)1.40.97.74.80
Mail : fperon2008@yahoo.fr

website : http://sites.google.com/site/peronfranck/

Research Interests

During my master degree I worked on referential communication in African grey parrots and then I decided to focus my studies on the Social Brain Hypothesis in Psittacidae for my PhD.

Human, some non-human primates (like chimpanzees) and some mammals (like dolphins, elephants ...) have a big brain in comparison with their body size. The brain consumes a huge quantity of energy and animals have to ingest a lot of food in order to obtain what they need. Furthermore it seems that most of the time this big brain is far from being used at his maximum. Thus, why natural selection mechanisms which occur in the evolution process of the species has continued to promote those big -brained animals'?

One of the hypotheses proposed (Joly, 1966 ; Humphrey,1976 ; Byrne & Whiten, 1988 ; Dunbar, 1998) is that those cognitive abilities would be used to manage the complex relation engage in a social life.

Some bird species (belonging to two families: Psittacidae and Corvid) have shown cognitive abilities and social interactions (studies of Pepperberg, Bovet, Giret, Emery & Clayton, Bugnyar, Gajdon....) as complicated to those observed in primates. Those birds are living in group; they have a long infancy' and then a long sexual life. It has been also demonstrated that their brains were very developed comparing to their body size. So the following question has to be asked: can we verify in those animals the hypothesis accepted for evolved' mammals?

My study undertaken under the supervision of D. Bovet and L. Nagle tends to highlight some components of the Social Brain Hypothesis such as competition, cooperation, deception,  selfish and prosocial behaviours.

Thanks to collaborations, I will compare three different species: African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) and Kea (Nestor notabilis).

Collaborations

Mgr Jitka Lindová

Fakulta Humanitních studií

Univerzita Karlova v Praze

Czech Republic


Dr Irene Pepperberg

Department of Psychology

Harvard University

&

Department of Psychology

Brandeis University

United-States

Dr Ralf Wanker
Department of biology
Biozentrum Grindel
Universität Hamburg
Germany

Pr Shigeru Watanabe

Keio University
Tokyo
Japan


 


Papers

Giret, N. Péron, F., Nagle, L., Kreutzer, M. & Bovet, D.  2009. Spontaneous categorization of vocal imitations in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Behavioural Processes, 82, 244-248.


Oral communications

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Comparison of three methods for referential communication learning in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Fourth meeting Ecology & Behavior, Toulouse, 15 Mars.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Referential communication learning with human words in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). 5ième GDR d'éthologie, Villetaneuse, 15 May.

N. Giret, F. Péron, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Referential acquisition of human labels in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) : efficiency of a new learning method ; 4th European Conference on Behavioural Ecology, Dijon, France, 18-20 juillet.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Spontaneous categorization in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) during referential communication learning. Vocal Communication in birds and Mammals, St Andrews, Scotland, 31st  July - 2nd August.

Rat-Fischer L., Péron F., Nagle L & Bovet D. Avian social cognition: Tolerance, synchronization, coordination and cooperation in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). 5th Meeting Ecology & Behavior. Lyon, France. 6-10/04/09

Péron F., Lalot M., Nagle L & Bovet D. Do African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) show prosocial behaviour? Social genes, social brain and socials minds; Compcog Budapest, Hongrie. 13-16/05/2009

Péron F., Nagle L & Bovet D. African grey parrots: an avian model for social intelligence studies. Symposium: The use of vertebrate model systems to study social evolution. Adelboden, Suisse. 15-18/08/09

 

Posters

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). How parrots (Psittacus erithacus) say the words. Umwelt: How living beings perceive the world, Paris, 18 February.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Catégorisation spontanée chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus). L'environnement périnatal : incidences sur le développement psychobiologique, Rouen, 20 Mars.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle & D. Bovet (2008). Pterotillomania. 5ème GDR d'éthologie, Villetaneuse, 15 May.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Catégorisation spontanée d'items chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus). 5ième GDR d'éthologie, Villetaneuse, 15 May.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle & D. Bovet (2008). Est-il éthique de garder des perroquets en captivité? L'exemple de la pterotillomanie chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus).34e colloque de l'AFSTAL, Strasbourg, 4-6 Juin.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) are able to categorise items spontaneously using human words. 4th European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Dijon, 18-20 July.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Les facteurs influençant l'apprentissage d'une communication référentielle chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus). Congrès Société Française de Psychologie, Bordeaux, 10-12 Septembre.

F. Péron, N. Giret, L. Nagle, M. Kreutzer & D. Bovet (2008). Convergences des mécanismes d'apprentissage et d'emploi des mots chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus) et chez l'homme ? Systématique et comportement, journées annuelles SFS, Paris, 1-2 Octobre.

Rat-Fischer L., Péron F., Nagle L., Giret N., Al Aïn S., Kreutzer M., Vick S.J., Anderson J.R. & Bovet D. Etude de la cognition chez les perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus).Cognivence, forum des sciences cognitives. Paris, France. 23/03/2009

Péron F., Rat-Fischer L., Nagle L & Bovet D. Cognition sociale chez les Psittacidés: le comportement de coopération. Colloque Jeunes Chercheurs en Sciences Cognitives. Toulouse, France. 09-11/06/09. (prix du meilleur poster)

Rat-Fischer L., Péron F., Nagle L & Bovet D. Coopération pour la résolution d'un problème chez les Gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus). Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Toulouse, France. 17-19/06/09

Péron F., Rat-Fischer L, Nagle L & Bovet D. Social interactions in Psittacidae during a cooperative task. 31th International Ethology Congress. Rennes, France. 19-24/08/09. (SFECA grant)

Péron F., Rat-Fischer L., Nagle L. & Bovet D. Le rôle du partenaire dans la résolution d'une tâche de coopération.PIRSTEC, Paris, 23 Octobre 2009.

 Péron F. & Bovet D. Le perroquet gris du Gabon : interprète et messager universel. Cognifiction/PIRSTEC, Paris, 23 octobre 2009.


Financial support

2008

*INCORE (Integrating Cooperation Research Across Europe) program

2009

*INCORE program

*ESF (European Science Foundation) visit grant: Compcog project; Budapest, 13-16/05/09)

*Aires Culturelles 09' visiting fellowship: Pepperberg lab, Harvard University, Boston, July 2009

*SFECA (French Society for animal behavior study) grant for international congress participation: IEC, Rennes, 19-24/08/09

 

Reward

Silver medal from the French Veterinarian Academy

Updated on 25 mai 2010