© Ronan Segev/TwitterStill from one of the goldfish navigational tests
Israeli scientists have built a "Fish Operated Vehicle" (FOV) and claim to have trained six goldfish to move it around. They say the experiment demonstrates how navigational skills can translate between different environments.
The study, published this month in the Behavioural Brain Research journal, involved putting the fish into a water tank attached to a wheeled robot that was hooked up to a motion-tracking camera. A computer program developed to respond to its movement towards the tank's walls then moved the FOV into the respective direction.
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University found that the goldfish managed to maneuver the vehicle around a three-by-four meter room in search of a marked destination in return for a food pellet reward. They gradually improved, "all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting location inaccuracies," the team wrote.
The fish were able to complete the same task when starting the FOV from different points in the room, or when the target was moved, or even when decoys were set up. While the trials lasted 30 minutes each, some of the fish ended up finding their targets in under a minute as the experiment progressed.
The team recorded the number of times the fish got to their targets, how long it took them and the distance traveled. By the last session, the fish had "exhibited control of the FOV and a high level of success."
The results suggest that "navigational ability is universal rather than specific to the environment," the researchers said, adding that it supports the hypothesis that space representation and navigation skills "possess a universal quality" across species.
"The way space is represented in the fish brain and the strategies it uses may be as successful in a terrestrial environment as they are in an aquatic one," the team noted, adding that goldfish may have the "cognitive ability to learn a complex task in an environment completely unlike the one they evolved in."
The team posted videos of the experiment and shared instructions to build mobile fish tanks on GitHub. In 2014, a team of Dutch computer scientists designed a similar goldfish-at-the-wheel apparatus that was apparently intended to "liberate fish all over the world."
Reader Comments
We have come a long way ...
But there are good examples of cat and dog breeds that are similar removed from nature, and would die within hours or days.
Great examples of human magnificence ...
Ha, ha, ha, ha,........
Stupid fish!
A fish out of water is a fish soon to be dead is what I said when I slaughtered that big fish, and then the whole family had a nice meal and we went to bed and rested contently.
How you like them apples?
(I actually did once get stalked and checked out by a 15' great white whose dorsal fin was about 20" to my right side. It was very hairy scary bad.) Here's one they're calling 20 feet long off of Florida. [Link] Viera is about 10 miles south of Cocoa.
RC
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Cause the evidence is in and early treatments were know and some of these big fish for their own pompous ego selfishness chose to stifle better knowledge, and now it is simple - justice is on the way for these son's of bitches whether they want it or not. It is coming.
Justified Retribution.
Try it next time.
Oooh. Just hooked one and now I'm pulling it in. I will poke its eyes out right of the bat and then I will eat it and after that, I will share what is left over with my family and then I will catch another big one and eat it as well. I like eating big fish especially big ones causing way more than their fair share of harm upon innocence - know what I mean earthwathcer? Do you?
RC
earthwatcher - I don't want to cross pathways with you either, but if we do I'm sure we can work something out.
Serious business in Kazakhstan (that ain't easy to spell) happening just now and my heart swells up for them. They have courage. I respect that.
BK
My brother worked at Baikonur for about 10 years before he retired. I have forgotten to ask him his inside take on it. He generally didn't like the whole third world/Russian aspect of stuff. Sounded like trying to negotiate with the Godfather. I will report in when I do chat with him about that.
RC
*My first cat as an adult was a eurochausie who was bigger than a bobcat. He was 3'2" nose to tail, and his haunches were over 17"! He weighed 24 lbs. (22 in his prime) and his eyes were 3/8" farther apart than mine are! (might have been 3/16" I've got that info somewhere) Epitome of a cool cat. Here's a pic of a similar cat. [Link]
RC
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Man, what a crazy day and such. I need a drink.
Welcome!
RC
I heard of humans that tried to climb high mountains, and expired halfway to the peak.
This is why they are under pressure. Their time is limited, they can't wait weeks up there for better weather. And they need months to fully recover afterwards, not to speak of the considerable cost of such an endeavour.
Thus the rushed decisions, and thus the many frozen mountain climbers ...
Climbers flee heavy snowfall in base camp on Manaslu, Nepal - 3 metres of snow in a week
Constant snow falling on Manaslu has pushed everyone away. "[In the] last week we had almost three metres of snow, so we decided to get everyone down to Samagaon, all the Sherpas, all the...RC