Unlike humans and great apes, rhesus monkeys do not instinctively know it is their own face staring at them from a mirror. But they do have the ability to learn self-recognition, according to new research.

By training monkeys to follow lasers on a mirror, scientists were able to teach the animals to look at, and recognise, their own reflection.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences trained the monkeys to recognise their own reflection by sitting them in front of a mirror (pictured) and shining laser light on their faces. After five weeks, the monkeys learnt to touch areas marked by the laser spot by looking at their reflection.

And once this skill had been learnt, the monkeys were able to use mirrors spontaneously to explore hidden parts of their bodies.

Dr Neng Gong, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the research, said: 'Our findings suggest that the monkey brain has the basic 'hardware' [for mirror self-recognition].'

'But they need appropriate training to acquire the 'software' to achieve self-recognition.' 

In earlier studies, monkeys have shown either no sign of recognising their own reflection, or little recognition, despite using mirrors as tools for observing other objects.

When researchers marked monkeys' faces and presented them with mirrors, they did not touch or examine the spot as a human would do. 

For the latest study, the scientists tried a different strategy. 

They sat the monkeys in front of a mirror and shone laser light on their faces.

After two to five weeks, the monkeys had learned to touch areas marked by the laser spot by looking at their reflection.

They also noticed virtual face marks in mirroring video images on a screen.

Five out of seven of the trained monkeys then started to show typical mirror-induced self-directed behaviour. 

One example involved touching a face spot and then looking at or smelling the fingers, as if thinking, 'what's that on my face?'

Unprompted by the researchers, the monkey additionally used mirrors in other ways to inspect inaccessible body parts.

Dr Neng Gong, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: 'Our findings suggest that the monkey brain has the basic 'hardware' [for mirror self-recognition], but they need appropriate training to acquire the 'software' to achieve self-recognition.' A baboon is pictured looking at a mirror.

The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, offer new hope to people who lose the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror due to brain disorders such as autism, schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said. 

They wrote: 'Although the impairment of self-recognition in patients implies the existence of cognitive/neurological deficits in self-processing brain mechanisms, our finding raised the possibility that such deficits might be remedied via training.

'Even partial restoration of self-recognition ability could be desirable.' 

The findings build on the results of cognitive psychologist Justin Couchman from the University at Buffalo in 2011.  

He, too, demonstrated that rhesus monkeys appear to have a sense of self-agency - the ability to understand that they are the cause of certain actions - and possess a form of self-awareness. (Daily Mail)