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Neurotoxicity Assessment in Adult Danio rerio using a Battery of Behavioral Tests in a Single Tank
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Published on: November 3, 2023

Inter-specific differences in numerical abilities among teleost fish.

Christian Agrillo1, Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini, Christian Tagliapietra

  • 1Department of General Psychology, University of Padova Padova, Italy.

Frontiers in Psychology
|November 20, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Fish possess basic numerical abilities, generalizing to quantity differences with a 0.67 ratio but not 0.75. This study standardized methods to compare numerical cognition across five fish species.

Keywords:
Betta splendensDanio rerioFish cognitionPoecilia reticulataPterophyllum scalareXenotoca eiseni

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Published on: April 14, 2021

Area of Science:

  • Comparative Cognition
  • Animal Behavior
  • Neuroethology

Background:

  • Non-verbal numerical systems are observed in humans and primates.
  • Significant debate exists on whether all vertebrates share similar numerical abilities.
  • Cross-species comparisons of numerical cognition are challenging due to methodological variations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To standardize methodology for comparing numerical abilities across vertebrate species.
  • To investigate quantity discrimination in five teleost fish species: redtail splitfin, guppies, zebrafish, Siamese fighting fish, and angelfish.
  • To determine if fish possess abstract numerical representations.

Main Methods:

  • A standardized procedure involving food rewards for discriminating between sets of geometrical figures was used.
  • Fish were trained on easy numerical ratios (e.g., 5 vs. 10) and then tested on varied ratios (e.g., 8 vs. 12) and set sizes.
  • Probe trials assessed generalization to different numerosities and set sizes, including constant ratio with increased/decreased set sizes (25 vs. 50, 2 vs. 4).

Main Results:

  • All five fish species generalized to numerosities with a 0.67 ratio but failed with a 0.75 ratio.
  • Fish generalized to smaller set sizes but not to larger ones.
  • Zebrafish showed lower performance in learning the task, but a control experiment indicated this was due to task difficulty, not numerical ability differences.

Conclusions:

  • Teleost fish exhibit basic numerical abilities, demonstrating sensitivity to quantity differences within certain ratios and set sizes.
  • Standardized methodology reveals minimal inter-species variation in numerical cognition among the tested fish.
  • Zebrafish's initial lower performance was attributed to learning the specific procedure, not inherent numerical deficits.