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Thursday, July 21st, 2016

Fish can recognize human faces, study finds

Author:     Reuters Staff Reporters
Source:     The Raw Story/Reuters
Publication Date:     20 Jul 2016 at 08:56 ET
Link: Fish can recognize human faces, study finds
Stephan:   When I was a boy there was a woman who lived down the street who had a large and complex aquarium filled with exotic fish. If you were well-behaved and quiet she would let you go into her library where the aquarium took up about half a wall and you could sit and watch. She always said the fish knew her, and it certainly seemed that way to me, because we she went close to the aquarium they would cluster and all point towards her. When I was older I told this to a biologist friend of my father who dismissed the idea as "nonsense, fish don't have the brains to recognize individual humans. It turns out she may have been right and he may have been wrong.
Archerfish

Archerfish

Scientists have shown for the first time how a species of tropical fish can distinguish between human faces. The archerfish used in experiments could demonstrate the ability to a high degree of accuracy; despite lacking the crucial neocortex part of the brain which other animals use for sophisticated visual recognition.

The research, conducted by scientists from the University of Oxford and Australia’s University of Queensland, wanted to test the long-held belief that differentiating between human faces could only be accomplished by more sophisticated animals, such as primates.

The archerfish, found largely in Australia and southeast Asia, was chosen for its ability to spit a jet of water; a technique it uses to shoot down insect prey even above the water level.

In laboratory-based tests, an archerfish was presented with two different images of human faces and trained to ‘choose’ one of them by shooting a jet of water at it.

“We present them with different stimuli, and it can be a whole range of different things. But what we do is we give them different options and then […]

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