A Comparison of Detour Behaviors in Some Marine and Freshwater Fish Species

Overview

Journal Animals (Basel)

Date 2024 Sep 14

PMID 39272357

Authors

Davide Potrich

Chiara Orsini

Gionata Stancher

Greta Baratti

Valeria Anna Sovrano

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Evidence of detour ability to reach a salient goal in marine fishes (, , ) and freshwater fishes (, ) has been observed using a "four-compartment box task" with an opaque barrier. The first experiment investigated this ability in marine fishes (, , ). Fish were placed in a four-compartment box, with social stimuli not accessible due to an opaque barrier. Two symmetrical apertures midline in the corridor allowed the fish to temporarily abandon the goal's view and attempt to circumvent the barrier. Marine fish showed searching behavior in the two compartments near the social stimuli. In the second experiment, the detour abilities of a marine fish () and two freshwater fishes (, ) were compared using a modified version of the apparatus, with elongated compartments continuing further from the obstacle barrier and social stimuli. This enabled the evaluation of the dependence on effective distance to achieve the social goal. Both marine and freshwater fish exhibited detour skills. Additionally, 's differential spatial explorations inside compartments supported an active interest in searching for conspecifics, suggesting possible social object permanence retention. Overall, these results highlight the ecological salience of detour skills in fishes, irrespective of species-specific adaptations.

References

Reddon A, Gutierrez-Ibanez C, Wylie D, Hurd P . The relationship between growth, brain asymmetry and behavioural lateralization in a cichlid fish. Behav Brain Res. 2009; 201(1):223-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.02.015. View

Neiworth J, Steinmark E, Basile B, Wonders R, Steely F, DeHart C . A test of object permanence in a new-world monkey species, cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Anim Cogn. 2003; 6(1):27-37. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-003-0162-2. View

Sovrano V . Visual lateralization in response to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli in fish. Behav Brain Res. 2004; 152(2):385-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2003.10.022. View

Dadda M, Sovrano V, Bisazza A . Temporal pattern of social aggregation in tadpoles and its influence on the measurement of lateralised response to social stimuli. Physiol Behav. 2003; 78(2):337-41. DOI: 10.1016/s0031-9384(02)01001-6. View

Sovrano V, Baratti G, Potrich D . A Detour Task in Four Species of Fishes. Front Psychol. 2018; 9:2341. PMC: 6281761. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02341. View

Diamond A . Developmental time course in human infants and infant monkeys, and the neural bases of, inhibitory control in reaching. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1990; 608:637-69; discussion 669-76. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1990.tb48913.x. View

Lucon-Xiccato T, Gatto E, Bisazza A . Fish perform like mammals and birds in inhibitory motor control tasks. Sci Rep. 2017; 7(1):13144. PMC: 5640690. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-13447-4. View

Sorvano V, Rainoldi C, Bisazza A, Vallortigara G . Roots of brain specializations: preferential left-eye use during mirror-image inspection in six species of teleost fish. Behav Brain Res. 1999; 106(1-2):175-80. DOI: 10.1016/s0166-4328(99)00105-9. View

Bisazza A, de Santi A, Bonso S, Sovrano V . Frogs and toads in front of a mirror: lateralisation of response to social stimuli in tadpoles of five anuran species. Behav Brain Res. 2002; 134(1-2):417-24. DOI: 10.1016/s0166-4328(02)00055-4. View

10.

Zucca P, Antonelli F, Vallortigara G . Detour behaviour in three species of birds: quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria). Anim Cogn. 2004; 8(2):122-8. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-004-0243-x. View

11.

Kabadayi C, Bobrowicz K, Osvath M . The detour paradigm in animal cognition. Anim Cogn. 2017; 21(1):21-35. PMC: 5756264. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1152-0. View

12.

Besson M, Gache C, Bertucci F, Brooker R, Roux N, Jacob H . Exposure to agricultural pesticide impairs visual lateralization in a larval coral reef fish. Sci Rep. 2017; 7(1):9165. PMC: 5567261. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-09381-0. View

13.

Triki Z, Bshary R . Sex differences in the cognitive abilities of a sex-changing fish species . R Soc Open Sci. 2021; 8(7):210239. PMC: 8278049. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210239. View

14.

Junghans A, Sterck E, Overduin de Vries A, Evers C, de Ridder D . Defying Food - How Distance Determines Monkeys' Ability to Inhibit Reaching for Food. Front Psychol. 2016; 7:158. PMC: 4757685. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00158. View

15.

Bisazza , Pignatti , Vallortigara . Laterality in detour behaviour: interspecific variation in poeciliid fish. Anim Behav. 1997; 54(5):1273-81. DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1997.0522. View

16.

Moll L, Kuypers H . Premotor cortical ablations in monkeys: contralateral changes in visually guided reaching behavior. Science. 1977; 198(4314):317-9. DOI: 10.1126/science.410103. View

17.

Bisazza A, Santaca M . Zebrafish excel in number discrimination under an operant conditioning paradigm. Anim Cogn. 2022; 25(4):917-933. PMC: 9334370. DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01602-y. View

18.

Potrich D, Rugani R, Sovrano V, Regolin L, Vallortigara G . Use of numerical and spatial information in ordinal counting by zebrafish. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):18323. PMC: 6893024. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54740-8. View

19.

Bisazza A, Facchin L, Pignatti R, Vallortigara G . Lateralization of detour behaviour in poeciliid fish: the effect of species, gender and sexual motivation. Behav Brain Res. 1998; 91(1-2):157-64. DOI: 10.1016/s0166-4328(97)00114-9. View

20.

Lee S, Ferrari A, Vallortigara G, Sovrano V . Boundary primacy in spatial mapping: Evidence from zebrafish (Danio rerio). Behav Processes. 2015; 119:116-22. DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2015.07.012. View