Valeria Anna Sovrano

Modularity and spatial reorientation in a simple mind: encoding of geometric and nongeometric properties of a spatial environment by fish

When disoriented in environments with distinctive geometry, such as a closed rectangular arena, human infants and adult rats reorient in accord with the large-scale shape of the environment, but not in accord with nongeometric properties such as the colour of a wall. Human adults, however, conjoined geometric and nongeometric information to reorient themselves, which has led to the suggestion that spatial processing tends to become more flexible over development and evolution. We here show that fish tested in the same tasks perform like human adults and surpass rats and human infants. These findings suggest that the ability to make use of geometry for spatial reorientation is an ancient evolutionary tract and that flexibility and accessibility to multiple sources of information to reorient in space is more a matter of ecological adaptations than phylogenetic distance from humans.

Modularity as a Fish (Xenotoca eiseni) Views It: Conjoining Geometric and Nongeometric Information for Spatial Reorientation

When disoriented in a closed rectangular tank, fish (Xenotoca eiseni) reoriented in accord with the large-scale shape of the environment, but they were also able to conjoin geometric information with nongeometric properties such as the color of a wall or the features provided by panels located at the corners of the tank. Fish encoded geometric information even when featural information sufficed to solve the spatial task. When tested after transformations that altered the original arrangement of the panels, fish were more affected by those transformations that modified the geometric relationship between the target and the shape of the environment. Finally, fish appeared unable to use nongeometric information provided by distant panels. These findings show that a reorientation mechanism based on geometry is widespread among vertebrates, though the joint use of geometric and nongeometric cues by fish suggest that the degree of information encapsulation of the mechanism varies considerably between species.

Brain asymmetry (animal).

Once considered a uniquely human attribute, brain asymmetry has been proved to be ubiquitous among non-human animals. A synthetic review of evidence of animal lateralization in the motor, sensory, cognitive, and affective domains is provided, together with a discussion of its development and possible biological functions. It is argued that investigation of brain asymmetry in a comparative perspective may favor the link between classical neuropsychological studies and modern developmental and evolutionary biology approaches. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 146-157 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.100 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Roots of brain specializations: preferential left-eye use during mirror-image inspection in six species of teleost fish

It has recently been reported that predator inspection is more likely to occur when a companion (i.e. the mirror image of the test animal) is visible on the left rather than on the right side of mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki. This very unexpected outcome could be consistent with the hypothesis of a preferential use of the right eye during sustained fixation of a predator as well as of a preferential use of the left eye during fixation of conspecifics. We measured the time spent in monocular viewing during inspection of their own mirror images in females of six species of fish, belonging to different families-G. holbrooki, Xenotoca eiseni, Phoxinus phoxinus, Pterophyllum scalare, Xenopoecilus sarasinorun, and Trichogaster trichopterus. Results revealed a consistent left-eye preference during sustained fixation in all of the five species. Males of G. holbrooki, which do not normally show any social behaviour, did not exhibit any eye preferences during mirror-image inspection. We found, however, that they could be induced to manifest a left-eye preference, likewise females, if tested soon after capture, when some affiliative tendencies can be observed. These findings add to current evidence in a variety of vertebrate species for preferential involvement of structures located in the right side of the brain in response to the viewing of conspecifics.

How fish do geometry in large and in small spaces

It has been shown that children and non-human animals seem to integrate geometric and featural information to different extents in order to reorient themselves in environments of different spatial scales. We trained fish (redtail splitfins, Xenotoca eiseni) to reorient to find a corner in a rectangular tank with a distinctive featural cue (a blue wall). Then we tested fish after displacement of the feature on another adjacent wall. In the large enclosure, fish chose the two corners with the feature, and also tended to choose among them the one that maintained the correct arrangement of the featural cue with respect to geometric sense (i.e. left-right position). In contrast, in the small enclosure, fish chose both the two corners with the features and the corner, without any feature, that maintained the correct metric arrangement of the walls with respect to geometric sense. Possible reasons for species differences in the use of geometric and non-geometric information are discussed.

Separate Geometric and Non-Geometric Modules for Spatial Reorientation: Evidence from a Lopsided Animal Brain

Research has proved that disoriented children and nonhuman animals can reorient themselves using geometric and nongeometric features of the environment, showing conjoined use of both types of information to different degree depending on species and developmental level. Little is known of the neurobiological bases of these spatial reorientation processes. Here we take advantage of the neuroanatomical peculiarities of the visual system of birds (showing segregation of information between the two sides of the brain to a considerable degree) to investigate the way in which geometric and nongeometric information is encoded and used by the left and right hemispheres. Domestic chicks were trained binocularly in an environment with a distinctive geometry (a rectangular cage) with panels at the corners providing nongeometric cues. Between trials, chicks were passively disoriented to disable dead reckoning. When tested after removal of the panels, lefteyed chicks, but not right-eyed chicks, reoriented using the residual information provided by the geometry of the cage. When tested after removal of geometric information (i.e., in a square-shaped cage), both rightand left-eyed chicks reoriented using the residual nongeometric information provided by the panels. When trained binocularly with only geometric information, at test, left-eyed chicks reoriented better than right-eyed chicks. Finally, when geometric and nongeometric cues provided contradictory information, left-eyed chicks showed more reliance on geometric cues, whereas right-eyed chicks showed more reliance on nongeometric cues. The results suggest separate mechanisms for dealing with spatial reorientation problems, with the right hemisphere taking charge of large-scale geometry of the environment and with both hemispheres taking charge of local, nongeometric cues when available in isolation, but with a predominance of the left hemisphere when competition between geometric and nongeometric information occurs.

Lateralization of response to social stimuli in fishes: A comparison between different methods and species

We measured the time spent in monocular viewing during inspection of their own mirror images in females of three species of fish (Xenotoca eiseni, Gambusia holbrooki and Xenopoecilus sarasinorum) using a rectangular tank in which animals could observe their own reflections in two mirrors positioned along the major walls, and in females of five species of fish (X. eiseni, G. holbrooki, X. sarasinorum, Danio rerio and Gnatonemus petersii) using a quasi-circular tank in which fish could rotate clockwise or anticlockwise and observe their own reflections in a mirror positioned along the outer wall. Results revealed a consistent left-eye preference during initial sustained fixation in all species irrespective of the apparatus. However, in the quasi-circular tank, fish showed more variability of response. The asymmetry was apparent during the first 5 min of observation and tended to fade thereafter, probably as a result of habituation. These findings add to current evidence for a quite invariant pattern in the direction of lateralization in similar tasks in a variety of vertebrate species, with a preferential involvement of structures located to the right side of the brain in response to the viewing of images of conspecifics.

Animals' use of landmarks and metric information to reorient: effects of the size of the experimental space

Disoriented children could use geometric information in combination with landmark information to reorient themselves in large but not in small experimental spaces. We tested fish in the same task and found that they were able to conjoin geometric and non-geometric (landmark) information to reorient themselves in both the large and the small space used. Moreover, fish proved able to reorient immediately when dislocated from a large to a small experimental space and vice versa, suggesting that they encoded the relative rather than the absolute metrics of the environment. However, fish tended to make relatively more errors based on geometric information when transfer occurred from a small to a large space, and to make relatively more errors based on landmark information when transfer occurred from a large to a small space. The hypothesis is discussed that organisms are prepared to use only distant featural information as landmarks.

Dissecting the Geometric Module A Sense Linkage for Metric and Landmark Information in Animals' Spatial Reorientation

Disoriented children can use geometric information in combination with featural information to reorient themselves in large but not in small spaces; somewhat similar effects have been found in nonhuman animals. These results call for an explanation. We trained young chicks to reorient to find food in a corner of a small or a large rectangular room with a distinctive featural cue (a blue wall)—a task similar to that used with children. Then we tested the chicks after displacement of the feature to an adjacent wall. In the large enclosure, chicks chose the corner that maintained the correct arrangement of the featural cue with respect to sense, whereas in the small enclosure, they chose the corner that maintained the correct metrical arrangement of the walls with respect to sense. On the basis of these findings, we propose a simple model that can explain the effects of room size on spatial reorientation.

Mosquitofish display differential left- and right-eye use during mirror image scrutiny and predator inspection responses

Previous work has shown that predator inspection in mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki, is more likely to occur when a mirror image of the test fish is visible on its left rather than on its right side. We investigated whether this is due to a preference for using the right eye when fixating the predator or the left eye when fixating the mirror image, or a combination of both eye preferences. We found that mosquitofish preferentially used the left eye during sustained scrutiny of their mirror image when tested in the absence of any predator. On the other hand, when tested in a swimway for predator inspection responses in the absence of any mirror image (or other social stimuli), mosquitofish explored the environment with the left eye when at a distance and the right eye when near the predator.