Just like humans, chicks too count from left to right

A new study has revealed that chicks count exactly like humans do - from left to right.

Rosa Rugani of the University of Trento, Italy, and her colleagues trained chicks to find food rewards in either the fourth or sixth of 16 dispensers, reports New Scientist.

Initially, the dispensers were black while the empty ones were white. But they were gradually made to be white as well, which meant that the chicks had to "count" to obtain the food.

The dispensers were lined such that the chicks faced all 16 at once, and had the choice of counting the dispensers from either the left or the right.

The team found that the birds always chose the dispenser fourth or sixth from the left, suggesting that they counted from the left of the line, not the right. Even adult nutcracker birds did the same.

Rugani believes counting instinctively count from the left happens because of the right hemisphere of the brain - which processes the left field of vision - is dominant in visual tasks.

This suggests counting from the left may be instinctive rather than culturally learned.