The common notion that fish have very limited intelligence has recently collapsed. A scientific study concluded that: The seemingly simple brain of the zebrafish is much more complex than previously thought.. Scientists discovered that The larvae of this species use visual information to create three-dimensional maps of their physical environment.An achievement that scientists thought was impossible.
Research led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Zebrafish can move around and avoid environmental obstacles while escaping from predators or danger..
The finding shows that The zebrafish is much smarter than you think and that can be used as a model to explore many aspects of human visual perceptionaccording to researchers.
“The results show that one of the most fundamental computational problems faced by animals, namely sensing a 3D model of the environment, can be studied in zebrafish larvae,” says Vikash Mansinghka, one of the study’s authors. “Current Biology”.
this zebrafish (Danio laughed) is one of the most widely used species as a model in biomedical research, both in its embryonic and larval form, and in its adult stage. the reason is that genome is 70% similar to humanand that More than 84% of the genes that cause disease in humans are also found in zebrafish.therefore, it is a suitable model for obtaining information about human pathologies.
Biomedical research with zebrafish embryos is applied to various fields of human medicine, such as cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, or drug studies. stop treating different diseases.
perfect guinea pig
The fact that these animals are often transparent during their development is another great advantage as it allows for a visual and minimally invasive examination of their organs. Zebrafish are the perfect guinea pigs..
Moreover, He has a wonderful ability to regenerate parts of his body., females can produce hundreds of rapidly developing embryos each week, allowing the research to be carried out very agile: 24 hours after fertilization, the embryos begin to move spontaneously; There is a heartbeat in 48 hours; They hatch after 72 hours and can feed independently after 120 hours.
The study’s lead author, Andrew Bolton, showed three years ago that: Zebrafish can accurately predict the trajectories of their prey based on their position and speed..
During the investigation, Bolton accidentally dropped one of the dishes containing zebrafish larvae and immediately noticed that it was scattered in all directions. This made him wonder if the choice of escape route was completely random and would be affected if there were obstacles.
The ability to detect obstacles requires the integration of multiple types of information sensory and also using this information to calculate the position of the obstacle relative to one’s own in space.
Zebrafish can anticipate danger scenarios and avoid them. Humans and many other animals can do this, but simpler organisms were not thought to be able to do so.
Bolton to find out if zebrafish can construct mental representations of their 3D environment. Experimental setup he would have to try to avoid an obstacle blocking one of his escape routes.
Ability to calculate distances
The fish were placed in a circular dish where they could swim freely. When a metal rod fell into the pan and made a loud noise, the fish immediately fled. Since there were no obstacles, the fish randomly chose either the left or the right as their escape route..
A plastic barrier was then placed, blocking one of the escape routes. The fish then chose to run unhindered in that direction as long as there was enough light to see it. They also avoid obstacles more when they are closer, which means They can also calculate the distance.
this fast reaction time About 10 milliseconds of zebrafish, it shows animals ‘pre-calculate’ a map of the barrier location before hearing the sound of the barrier falling into the panbecause it takes about 60 milliseconds for this type of visual information to be transmitted from the retina to the brain, eliminating the possibility of fish looking for obstacles after hearing the sound.
Such behavior has been observed in rodents and other mammals, but not in simpler vertebrates. The findings show how a deceptively simple little animal possesses remarkable computational and behavioral abilities.and open a new way to explore questions about how the brain constructs models of the world.
The researchers now plan to discover which part of the zebrafish brain encodes representations of depth perception. They hope the new findings will help persuade some cognitive and systems neuroscientists, who view the zebrafish as too simplistic to serve their purpose, to start seeing it as a species. a model that now has the potential to integrate many different approaches used to study the brain.
Reference work: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01698-0
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