AI Article Synopsis
- Researchers are developing quick and reliable behavioral tests using zebrafish to study their numerical abilities, focusing on proto-arithmetic and quantity discrimination.
- In preference tests, male zebrafish naturally chose the larger group of female fish when comparing two sets but struggled with larger differences.
- The study indicates that zebrafish can perform basic arithmetic and may have an understanding of zero, with their choices influenced by the speed and order of stimulus presentation.
Article Abstract
The increasing use of zebrafish () as a model for studying the neural bases of numerical/quantity abilities pushes toward the development of fast and reliable behavioral tasks for this species. Here, we investigated the spontaneous use of proto-arithmetic in quantity discrimination in zebrafish taking advantage of their shoaling behavior. Male fish underwent preference choice tests in which sets of live female conspecifics sequentially disappeared one by one behind one of two opaque identical panels. Fish spontaneously approached the panel occluding the larger set in a "1 2" comparison, but failed at "2 3" and "2 4". Limited to an overall amount of three elements in the two groups, zebrafish appeared to be able to deal with additions and subtractions, also suggesting the implicit understanding of an "empty set" (zero) concept. The velocity and the sequential/simultaneous presentation of the stimuli affected the spontaneous preference towards the group with the largest quantity.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11636080 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40585 | DOI Listing |
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