Like Humans, Fish Process Information On Different Sides Of The Brain

[mrmoshe]

Like humans, fish process information on different sides of the brain

London, July 10 : Too often we forget that just like us, animals also have feelings and emotions.

A new research has proved that like humans, fish process information, and possibly emotions, on different sides of the brain.

Fish growing up in the wild among predators use their left eye to look at new objects, while their progeny raised in confinement use the right eye.

According to Victoria Braithwaite of the University of Edinburgh, UK, this finding uggests that life experiences can influence which side of the brain fish use, and even, says that they have emotional mindsets, since different sides of the brain may correspond to an inquisitive or apprehensive attitude.

"The lab-reared fish could process information about novel objects in the left brain [which means they are looking at things with their right eye] because they feel more comfortable, whereas their parents are more cautious," NewScientist.com quoted Braithwaite, as saying.

Researchers said that humans use their left and right brain lobes in different ways, the most distinguished effect being handedness. Brain lateralisation has been found in an increasing number of other species in recent years.

"Especially for animals that have to cope with many predators, it is an advantage if they can use one hemisphere to keep an eye on predators while they use the other hemisphere to do other things," Culum Brown, now at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said.

"Lab-reared fish could process information about novel objects in the left brain because they feel more comfortable," Brown added.

Brown and his team caught bishop fish (Brachyraphis episcopi), which are similar to guppies, from areas with high and low predation rates in Panama. The team bred the fish in the lab and then tested the activities of both the wild parents and their young ones. Fish swam towards a slatted blockade through which they could see a novel object (a yellow cross), nothing, or another bishop fish. They could then swim past the blockade either to the left or to the right. Swimming out to the left meant the fish had kept its right eye on the barrier, and vice versa.

Results showed that neither fish from low predation areas nor their young showed much of an inclination towards the left or right exit, signifying that their brains were not very lateralised.

However, fish from high predation areas favoured one eye, as did their lab-born offspring, especially when viewing the novel object.

"This shows that a tendency for brain splitting can be inherited. But amazingly, the captive-born offspring preferred the right eye when their parents preferred the left. So the way the fish then use this brain division is a learned thing," says Braithwaite.

Giorgio Vallortigara from the University of Trieste, Italy, who studies lateralisation in vertebrates, said that the left side of the brain directs advance behaviour and the right side withdrawal.

"The wild fish could similarly use their left eye here because they are frightened and more likely to withdraw," Vallortigara said.

However, Brown said that there was another explanation for this. Left-eye preference for novel objects in wild fish could mean they have learned to take better advantage of their inborn ability to lateralise.

"Using the left lobe could simply be the default in this context," Brown said.

Indeed, fish from low-predation areas showed a minor tendency to use the right eye in all tasks. Lab-born fish of parents from high-predation areas could be exaggerating this default right-eye prejudice because they have inherited strong lateralisation. However, since they've never met a predator, they haven't learned to pay special attention to novel objects using their right brain and left eye.

Whether humans with differing life experience also vary in which brain side they use to tackle certain emotive stimuli is not yet known, but the researchers agree that such processing plasticity is likely in all lateralised species.

"We know, for example, that stroke patients with damage to one hemisphere can learn to compensate with the other lobe," Brown said.

[jewgaffer]

Like humans, fish process information on different sides of the brain

London, July 10 : Too often we forget that just like us, animals also have feelings and emotions.

A new research has proved that like humans, fish process information, and possibly emotions, on different sides of the brain.

Fish growing up in the wild among predators use their left eye to look at new objects, while their progeny raised in confinement use the right eye.

According to Victoria Braithwaite of the University of Edinburgh, UK, this finding uggests that life experiences can influence which side of the brain fish use, and even, says that they have emotional mindsets, since different sides of the brain may correspond to an inquisitive or apprehensive attitude.

"The lab-reared fish could process information about novel objects in the left brain [which means they are looking at things with their right eye] because they feel more comfortable, whereas their parents are more cautious," NewScientist.com quoted Braithwaite, as saying.

Researchers said that humans use their left and right brain lobes in different ways, the most distinguished effect being handedness. Brain lateralisation has been found in an increasing number of other species in recent years.

"Especially for animals that have to cope with many predators, it is an advantage if they can use one hemisphere to keep an eye on predators while they use the other hemisphere to do other things," Culum Brown, now at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, said.

"Lab-reared fish could process information about novel objects in the left brain because they feel more comfortable," Brown added.

Brown and his team caught bishop fish (Brachyraphis episcopi), which are similar to guppies, from areas with high and low predation rates in Panama. The team bred the fish in the lab and then tested the activities of both the wild parents and their young ones. Fish swam towards a slatted blockade through which they could see a novel object (a yellow cross), nothing, or another bishop fish. They could then swim past the blockade either to the left or to the right. Swimming out to the left meant the fish had kept its right eye on the barrier, and vice versa.

Results showed that neither fish from low predation areas nor their young showed much of an inclination towards the left or right exit, signifying that their brains were not very lateralised.

However, fish from high predation areas favoured one eye, as did their lab-born offspring, especially when viewing the novel object.

"This shows that a tendency for brain splitting can be inherited. But amazingly, the captive-born offspring preferred the right eye when their parents preferred the left. So the way the fish then use this brain division is a learned thing," says Braithwaite.

Giorgio Vallortigara from the University of Trieste, Italy, who studies lateralisation in vertebrates, said that the left side of the brain directs advance behaviour and the right side withdrawal.

"The wild fish could similarly use their left eye here because they are frightened and more likely to withdraw," Vallortigara said.

However, Brown said that there was another explanation for this. Left-eye preference for novel objects in wild fish could mean they have learned to take better advantage of their inborn ability to lateralise.

"Using the left lobe could simply be the default in this context," Brown said.

Indeed, fish from low-predation areas showed a minor tendency to use the right eye in all tasks. Lab-born fish of parents from high-predation areas could be exaggerating this default right-eye prejudice because they have inherited strong lateralisation. However, since they've never met a predator, they haven't learned to pay special attention to novel objects using their right brain and left eye.

Whether humans with differing life experience also vary in which brain side they use to tackle certain emotive stimuli is not yet known, but the researchers agree that such processing plasticity is likely in all lateralised species.

"We know, for example, that stroke patients with damage to one hemisphere can learn to compensate with the other lobe," Brown said.

hi mallacuta pete . a good research source and very informative pete and the technical research proves it's point.

my ballina grass roots commercial fisho friends, when they use bull mullet as livebaits often pierce their eyes wth a hook point so they can't hide so well.

good post and good reading for everyone pete.

jewgaffer

fish on