Some higher life forms find that doing sudoku or crossword puzzles helps
them stay mentally nimble. Now scientists are beginning to think that a
bit of entertaining, brain-stimulating “play” each day can sharpen the
minds of fish and help them focus on their work: eating, reproducing,
and avoiding predators.
In a study at Norway’s University of Bergen, hatchery-raised salmon whose tanks had been tricked out with pebbles, cobbles, and plastic fronds appeared to be markedly, well, smarter than salmon that had spent their days in plain, undecorated tanks. Researchers believe the decorations foster a useful survival skill by breaking up water currents and providing obstacles that the fish must negotiate—an activity that serves these fish well when they’re released into rivers, where water currents are highly dynamic and natural obstacles abound. By contrast, in the undecorated tanks, where the current flowed only one way, the salmon just swam around in endless circles.
To test salmon IQ, researchers sent fish from two groups through a maze. Those from the furnished tanks made fewer mistakes along their route and found their way out more quickly than those from the unfurnished tanks. (One poor guy from the latter group swam into the same dead end 15 times in a row.) Researchers also looked inside some of the fishes’ heads—literally—and found that the brains of salmon with playground privileges displayed increased development and plasticity.
Anne Gro Vea Salvanes, who led the study, hopes conservation hatcheries will put her team’s findings to good use. While the industry has noted these findings with interest, hatcheries have hesitated to furnish their fish tanks, citing labor and maintenance costs. Acknowledging such barriers, Salvanes and her colleagues are working to develop a set of fun, pedagogically approved, “easy-to-install, easy-to-maintain” fish-tank equipment: the piscine equivalent of the educational toys you might find in an elementary school gifted-and-talented program. We always knew our little Nemo was special!
Read more: Fish Food for Thought | OnEarth Magazine
In a study at Norway’s University of Bergen, hatchery-raised salmon whose tanks had been tricked out with pebbles, cobbles, and plastic fronds appeared to be markedly, well, smarter than salmon that had spent their days in plain, undecorated tanks. Researchers believe the decorations foster a useful survival skill by breaking up water currents and providing obstacles that the fish must negotiate—an activity that serves these fish well when they’re released into rivers, where water currents are highly dynamic and natural obstacles abound. By contrast, in the undecorated tanks, where the current flowed only one way, the salmon just swam around in endless circles.
To test salmon IQ, researchers sent fish from two groups through a maze. Those from the furnished tanks made fewer mistakes along their route and found their way out more quickly than those from the unfurnished tanks. (One poor guy from the latter group swam into the same dead end 15 times in a row.) Researchers also looked inside some of the fishes’ heads—literally—and found that the brains of salmon with playground privileges displayed increased development and plasticity.
Anne Gro Vea Salvanes, who led the study, hopes conservation hatcheries will put her team’s findings to good use. While the industry has noted these findings with interest, hatcheries have hesitated to furnish their fish tanks, citing labor and maintenance costs. Acknowledging such barriers, Salvanes and her colleagues are working to develop a set of fun, pedagogically approved, “easy-to-install, easy-to-maintain” fish-tank equipment: the piscine equivalent of the educational toys you might find in an elementary school gifted-and-talented program. We always knew our little Nemo was special!
Read more: Fish Food for Thought | OnEarth Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment