Friday, March 29

Fish are capable of learning to drive



An Israeli investigation has shown that fish can drive a wheeled vehicle on land, guiding it with their natural swimming movements thanks to technology.

An experiment carried out at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel shows that a specific type of fish can be trained to direct the movement of a wheeled vehicle that is out of the water.

A total of six goldfish participated in the experiment (Carassius auratus) and all demonstrated that they could navigate on land. The results are published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

Special vehicle

This result has been obtained by means of a special vehicle, consisting of a container with water installed on top of a wheeled platform, in which the fish is introduced.

That vehicle contains a camera that detects the movements of the fish and sends that information to an algorithm. Through a tiny computer, the movement, orientation and location of the fish are translated into instructions for the vehicle’s wheels.

In this way, the vehicle moves forward, backward, left or right, depending on the dynamics shown by the fish.

To move in a specific direction, the fish must be facing out of the tank, as if it were facing towards the center, the vehicle would not move.

Methodology

To achieve this result, the scientists had to teach the fish to relate their natural swimming movements to the movements of the vehicle. Explain The Guardian.

They were then shown a destination: a pink board located in the room, which gave the fish a reward (food) if they managed to touch it with the vehicle.

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After several days of training, the fish successfully steered the vehicle to the target, starting from different positions. They even faced obstacles, such as false targets or crashing into a wall, without it preventing them from finally reaching the destination and the reward.

Cognitive ability

Shachar Givon, one of the protagonists of the experiment, explains in a release that goldfish have the cognitive ability to learn a complex task in a completely different environment than the one in which they evolved.

The authors also suggest that this study demonstrates that the ability to navigate, essential for the survival of animals, and even to find food, shelter or mates, is universal for all species and independent of the environment, which is a revelation.

“Since our common ancestor is far, far behind on the evolutionary ladder, finding that fish share similar navigational abilities to ours really speaks volumes about the importance of these abilities in the animal kingdom,” adds Givon.

Also rats

It should be noted in this regard that rats have also previously shown that they can drive a small car.

An investigation developed at the University of Richmond in Virginia and published in 2019 showed that these rodents can not only learn to recognize objects and orient themselves in mazes, but they are also capable of learning to operate a moving vehicle.

The author of this rat research, Kelly Lambert, is not completely surprised, though intrigued, by the fish-handling skills achieved by the Israeli researchers. Explain to the ScienceNews magazine.

Race between species

He adds that teaching goldfish to navigate such strange terrain takes animal driving experiments to the next level. And that this journey has only just begun.

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And he concludes: when it comes to testing the limits of animal navigation, it is important to diversify and expand our tasks and our species. I think we need an international race between rats and goldfish, he concludes.

It must be taken into account that the brain of goldfish is relatively small, containing between 10,000 and 20,000 neurons, while that of rats can house many more, up to 21 million.

The race between the two species that Lambert proposes would always be uneven, but it is surprising that they have a shared ability with us, with brains that have about 80,000 million neurons.

Reference

From fish out of water to new insights on navigation mechanisms in animals. Shachar Givon et al. Behavioural Brain Research, Volume 419, 15 February 2022, 113711. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113711


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