Episodic-like memory in zebrafish

Hamilton, Trevor J.; Myggland, Allison; Duperreault, Erika; May, Zacnicte; Gallup, Joshua; Powell, Russell A.; Schalomon, Melike; Digweed, Shannon M.

doi:10.1007/s10071-016-1014-1

Cited by 74 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When tested in shoals, fish were given bloodworm at the feeding test and 48 hours later presented with a ~12cm long plastic dinosaur toy for the novel-object test. The location and time (11.00-12.00) items were presented were kept constant, but a change in food and objects maintained novelty and controlled for episodic-like memorisation of familiar items (Hamilton et al, 2016). Objects were lowered at an uncovered part of the tank by a pulley system to the bottom of the tank, at which point recording started.…”

Section: Behavioural Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grouping promotes risk-taking in unfamiliar settings

Kareklas

Elwood

Holland

2018

Behavioural Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acting collectively in a group provides risk-reducing benefits. Yet individuals differ in how they take risks, with some being more willing than others to approach dangerous or unfamiliar settings. Therefore, individuals may need to adjust their behaviour when in groups, either as a result of perceiving greater safety or to coordinate collective responses, the latter of which may rely on within-group dynamics biased by group composition. In zebrafish we explored how these aspects of grouping affect risk-taking behaviour by comparing solitary to group conditions and testing the ability of group-member solitary responses to predict collective responses. We focused on approach-latency towards a novel object and an unusual food to test this, for shoals of five fish. There was no indication that collective latencies are predicted by how each fish responded when alone in terms of the extremes, the variance or the mean of group-member latency towards the unusual food and the novel-object. However, fish were overall faster and less variable in their approach when shoaling. This indicates lower risk aversion by individuals in groups, presumably as a result of group safety. An interesting consequence of the overall low risk-aversion in shoals is that more risk-aversive fish adjust their behaviour more than less risk averse fish.

show abstract

Section: Behavioural Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grouping promotes risk-taking in unfamiliar settings

Kareklas

Elwood

Holland

2018

Behavioural Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several complex cognitive processes and abilities believed to be distinctive of few mammalian and avian species have been recently observed in teleost fish in spite of their relatively small brain size [22,23]. For instance, some fish species use tools, transmit cultural information, show problem solving, learn complex spatial mazes, and display episodic-like memory [22,24,25,26,27,28]. Some of the cognitive tasks successfully solved by fish, such as reversal learning, require inhibition to some extent [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish perform like mammals and birds in inhibitory motor control tasks

Lucon‐Xiccato

Gatto

Bisazza

2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Inhibitory control is an executive function that positively predicts performance in several cognitive tasks and has been considered typical of vertebrates with large and complex nervous systems such as primates. However, evidence is growing that some fish species have evolved complex cognitive abilities in spite of their relatively small brain size.We tested whether fish might also show enhanced inhibitory control by subjecting guppies, Poecilia reticulata, to the motor task used to test warm-blooded vertebrates. Guppies were trained to enter a horizontal opaque cylinder to reach a food reward; then, the cylinder was replaced by a transparent one, and subjects needed to inhibit the response to pass thought the transparency to reach the food. Guppies performed correctly in 58 % of trials, a performance fully comparable to that observed in most birds and mammals. In experiment 2, we tested guppies in a task with a different type of reward, a group of conspecifics.Guppies rapidly learned to detour a transparent barrier to reach the social reward with a performance close to that of experiment 1. Our study suggests that efficient inhibitory control is shown also by fish, and its variation between-species is only partially explained by variation in brain size.not peer-reviewed)

show abstract

“…Recently, this species has also been widely used to increase comprehension of brain functions [24][25][26]. There is evidence that zebrafish exhibit different cognitive abilities, such as spatial abilities [27], numerical abilities [28], episodic-like memory [29], and social learning [30]. Taken together, these studies suggest that the cognitive abilities of zebrafish are similar to those described in many other vertebrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

The Impact of Brain Lateralization and Anxiety-Like Behaviour in an Extensive Operant Conditioning Task in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several studies in mammals, birds, and fish have documented better cognitive abilities associated with an asymmetrical distribution of cognitive functions in the two halves of the brain, also known as ‘functional brain lateralization’. However, the role of brain lateralization in learning abilities is still unclear. In addition, although recent studies suggest a link between some personality traits and accuracy in cognitive tasks, the relation between anxiety and learning skills in Skinner boxes needs to be clarified. In the present study, we tested the impact of brain lateralization and anxiety-like behaviour in the performance of an extensive operant conditioning task. Zebrafish tested in a Skinner box underwent 500 trials in a colour discrimination task (red vs. yellow and green vs. blue). To assess the degree of lateralization, fish were observed in a detour test in the presence of a dummy predator, and anxiety-like behaviour was studied by observing scototaxis response in an experimental tank divided into light and dark compartments. Although the low performance in the colour discrimination task did not permit the drawing of firm conclusions, no correlation was found between the accuracy in the colour discrimination task and the behaviour in the detour and scototaxis tests. This suggests that neither different degrees of asymmetries in brain lateralization nor anxiety may significantly impact the learning skills of zebrafish.

show abstract

Episodic-like memory in zebrafish

Cited by 74 publications

References 35 publications

Grouping promotes risk-taking in unfamiliar settings

Grouping promotes risk-taking in unfamiliar settings

Fish perform like mammals and birds in inhibitory motor control tasks

The Impact of Brain Lateralization and Anxiety-Like Behaviour in an Extensive Operant Conditioning Task in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About