Forget general AI, apparently zebrafish larvae can count
- Reference: 1679670241
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/24/zebrafish_larvae_numerical_study/
- Source link:
University of Ferrara behavioural biology assistant professor Tyrone Lucon-Xiccato and his colleagues showed larvae of zebrafish ( Danio rerio ), a freshwater fish from the minnow family, can recognize differences between numbers of black bars within 96 hours of hatching.
The researchers started their investigation after discovering the nascent creatures, usually around 4mm in length, preferred the tank walls featuring larger quantities of black bars and spent almost twice as much time near larger quantities of bars than smaller quantities.
[1]
Early numerical abilities have been discovered by scientists in a number of other species, including humans, guppies and chickens, whose newborns have relatively well-developed brains. But the [2]study published in Nature journal Communications Biology this week is the first to show the apparent ability to count during a creature’s larval or foetal stage, when they have underdeveloped brains.
[3]
Adult zebrafish, which are usually 1.8cm to just under 4cm long in the wild
“We demonstrated that zebrafish larvae exposed to vertical bars at birth acquired an attraction for bar stimuli and we developed a numerical discrimination task based on this preference. When tested with a series of discriminations of increasing difficulty, zebrafish larvae reliably selected the greater numerosity,” the study said.
[4]Forget Finding Nemo: This AI can identify a single zebrafish out of a 100-strong shoal
[5]So long, thanks for all the ...er, FISH BRIGHTER than boffins thought
[6]20,000 proteins expressed by human genome predicted by DeepMind's AlphaFold now available to download
[7]Boffins get fish drunk to prove what any bouncer already knows
Lucon-Xiccato and colleagues initially raised larvae in tanks with walls covered in a pattern of vertical black bars. After 96 hours, 180 individual larvae were placed in the center of a separate tank, which featured two white walls with different quantities of up to four black bars printed onto them. The researchers studied the larvae’s preference for the larger or smaller number of black bars or stuck to the middle of the tank. They timed how long larvae spent in each tank section. Control tests accounted for the different densities, surface areas, and shapes of the bars.
The study showed 63.1 percent of larvae preferred the tank walls with larger quantities of black bars, a trend sustained despite varying bar density, surface area, and overall shape in control tests. The researchers concluded they had discovered the larvae could recognise differing quantities of black bars and wanted to be near the larger quantities.
[8]
Zebrafish larvae under the microscope
The finding is all the more remarkable given the relatively poorly developed nervous system of the zebrafish larvae at birth. They only display simple responses to stimuli such as pain, for example.
“Other behaviors, such as feeding and efficient swimming, will appear after the sixth-day post-fertilization and more complex behaviour such as social interactions occur only three weeks later. Given their peculiar developmental mode, the most likely explanation for the presence of numerical abilities in zebrafish larvae is an innate biological predisposition.
[9]
"In line with the fitness advantages of processing numerical information, such hardwired numerical abilities might prepare individual zebrafish for important behaviour but only in later life,” the study said.
Whatever the evolutionary driver for numerical ability, the study of zebrafish larvae shows it “might be a hallmark feature of vertebrates’ brains,” the scientists concluded. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZB3XNN7yCJj7bHLWMWNWxwAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-04595-7
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/03/24/shutetrtsock_zebrafish.jpg
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/15/ai_pattern_recognition/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2014/10/31/fish_are_a_whole_lot_smarter_than_we_ever_knew/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/26/in_brief_ai/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/08/15/boffins_get_fish_drunk_to_finally_discover_the_disastrous_effects_of_energy_drinks_mixed_with_alcohol/
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2023/03/24/shutetrtsock_zebrafish_larvae.jpg
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZB3XNN7yCJj7bHLWMWNWxwAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Wow ...
Yes, but it's a good suggestion of what might be the situation in our larger brains, we originally probably had brains that size when we were only fish, crawling onto the sandy beaches about three and a half billion years ago.
Jumping to conclusions?
Is it possible that the baby zebrafish simply preferred darker areas, as a surface with more black bars would reflect less light, than a lighter area? Or, possibly, since zebrafish bodies have dark stripes themselves, are they simply migrating to an area where they belief more zebrafish are located (by visually identifying an area containing, what they believe are, a greater number of zebrafish bodies via a larger number of visually identifiable stripes)?
In other words, are you inferring counting ability instead of optical pattern recognition? And how can you tell?
I wish to see much further study into this phenomena.
Re: Jumping to conclusions?
"Is it possible that the baby zebrafish simply preferred darker areas, as a surface with more black bars would reflect less light, than a lighter area? Or, possibly, since zebrafish bodies have dark stripes themselves, are they simply migrating to an area where they belief more zebrafish are located (by visually identifying an area containing, what they believe are, a greater number of zebrafish bodies via a larger number of visually identifiable stripes)?"
Exactly what I was thinking. Fry seek cover, or they're someone else's lunch - black bars are maybe the best cover they could find, given their own colouring. Zebrafish like to shoal too, so it could well be that they're heading for fishlike patterns.
I suppose you could argue that they're aware of more dark over here than over there, but that doesn't really amount to counting.
More bars?
Or perhaps they are attracted to the closer spacing.
Maybe the title of this study should have been: Zebrafish capable of performing spatial Fourier transforms.
More bars
My boss also prefers more bars, especially on a Saturday night...
I think we may have found our next chancellor.
meow !
Awareness of numbers
Humans, several animals, and some birds can recognise small numbers at sight: three people or four flowers, for example. The next step is to associate a word such as three or four with those numbers. We are down to humans and fewer animals. The final step is to understand relationships, such as 1 + 4 = 3 + 2. Here we are at humans only, and not all humans at that.
Wow ...
... that's a brain of about 100k neurons in a space of about a tenth of a cubic millimetre ... extraordinary really.