Predator robots help researchers uncover how larval zebrafish rapidly learn (VIDEO)
Caption
Janelia researchers thought that traditional ways of testing learning in larval zebrafish in the lab -- where the conditions were far from what the fish would encounter in the wild -- might not be effective for uncovering how the fish learn.
Instead, the team decided to simulate a real-life experience: being chased by something that does not initially look like a predator. To model this, the researchers used small robotic cylinders, with some programmed to show predator-like characteristics.
They first placed a robot in an arena with a freely swimming zebrafish (pre-training). While the robot was stationary, the fish would explore the entire arena, including the area around the robot.
Next, the researchers had the robot chase the fish for about a minute (training) before becoming stationary again (post-training). Just one minute of chasing enabled the fish to learn that the robot could be dangerous, resulting in the fish avoiding the area around the robot for more than an hour (post-training) – a big change from the non-avoidant behavior before the chase experience.
Using this novel system, the researchers made the unexpected discovery that not only could larval zebrafish learn robustly and extremely quickly in a more natural context, but they could also do so just five days after beginning their lives as single cells. The researchers showed that the larval zebrafish rapidly learned to recognize non-predator and predator robots and learned to avoid the latter.
Credit
Zocchi et al.
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CC BY