The Geometric World of Fishes: History
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Contributor:
Greta Baratti
,
,
Sang Ah Lee
,
Valeria Sovrano

Spatial orientation may be led by the distinctive geometry of an environment: fish can use attributes of metric (short/long, close/far) and sense (left/right) to reach convenient locations, such as a foraging site. This remarkable capacity requires to handle the macrostructural attributes of space, which are based on Euclidean concepts, such as “point”, “surface”, and “boundary”.

  • navigation
  • spatial geometry
  • reorientation
  • teleosts
  • fishes
A classic example of geometric reorientation is the following. You are standing in the center of a rectangular white room where in one corner there is a prize. You are blindfolded and turned in place, during which time the prize is removed. Afterwards, you are asked to take the blindfold off and identify the corner where you saw the prize before. If the room is perfectly rectangular, rather than choosing one of the four corners at random or always choosing the correct corner, you will systematically choose the 180° symmetric corner that has the same geometric attributes (e.g., a short wall on the left) as the correct corner.
Freshwater and seawater species of fish make use of several orientation strategies for adaptative behavior. Some of these strategies request to detect, process, and memorize specific sets of spatial cues, according to self-based coordinates, while others involve spatial relationships in world-based coordinates. Spatial orientation based on the environmental geometry has been widely investigated across species, starting from Cheng’s original observations with rats[1][2][3][4][5]. His findings led him to advance the hypothesis that a “geometric module” might exist in the brain of animals to encode metric and sense properties of surfaces.
Fish possess excellent capacities in spatial mapping and navigation: they can plan and execute adaptive movements to remembered goals[6][7][8][9][10][11][12], by means of learning and memory processes comparable to those displayed by land tetrapods. Beyond that, fish can resolve spatial reorientation tasks in which: 1) environmental geometries are interlaced with featural information, such as landmarks; 2) different behavioral procedures and memory systems are engaged; 3) nonvisual environments or blindness conditions request to use other sensory modalities or motion patterns[13]. An example of reorientation behavior of fish is shown in the video provided below.
This video shows an experimental trial performed by a trained specimen of goldfish (Carassius auratus) within a rectangular transparent arena. To resolve the geometric task, the fish had to choose one of the two target corners ("A" or "C") that allow it to leave the arena. These two corners had the same geometric attributes, such as a short wall on the right and a long wall on the left. The transparency of the rectangular space requested the fish to use other sensory modalities than vision to properly reorient. The behavioral pattern became increasingly consistent with repeated experience, as the fish was rewarded with food in the case of correct choices.
Behavioral observations with blind fishes[14], and eyed fishes in visual transparency contexts[15], have suggested that the shape of an environment can be experienced through multiple sensory modalities (e.g., the lateral line, the sense of touch), thus supporting the ecological importance of geometric information. More than other animal groups, teleosts are increasingly emerging as a powerful model to explore spatial memory and its neural correlates, starting from their precision at navigating through underwater environments. The geometric world of fish has been sculpted by ecological pressures to use macrostructural spatial cues for survival purposes.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/ani12070881

References

  1. Ken Cheng; A purely geometric module in the rat's spatial representation. Cognition 1986, 23, 149-178, 10.1016/0010-0277(86)90041-7.
  2. Ken Cheng; Nora S. Newcombe; Is there a geometric module for spatial orientation? squaring theory and evidence. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2005, 12, 1-23, 10.3758/bf03196346.
  3. Ken Cheng; Whither geometry? Troubles of the geometric module. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2008, 12, 355-361, 10.1016/j.tics.2008.06.004.
  4. Luca Tommasi; Cinzia Chiandetti; Tommaso Pecchia; Valeria Anna Sovrano; Giorgio Vallortigara; From natural geometry to spatial cognition. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 2011, 36, 799-824, 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.007.
  5. Sang Ah Lee; The boundary-based view of spatial cognition: a synthesis. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2017, 16, 58-65, 10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.03.006.
  6. Lester R. Aronson; FURTHER STUDIES ON ORIENTATION AND JUMPING BEHAVIOR IN THE GOBIID FISH, BATHYGOBIUS SOPORATOR. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1971, 188, 378-392, 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1971.tb13110.x.
  7. Culum Brown; Kevin N Laland; Social learning in fishes: a review. Fish and Fisheries 2003, 4, 280-288, 10.1046/j.1467-2979.2003.00122.x.
  8. Peter Cain; William Gerin; Peter Moller; Short-range Navigation of the Weakly Electric Fish, Gnathonemus petersii L. (Mormyridae, Teleostei), in Novel and Familiar Environments. Ethology 1994, 96, 33-45, 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1994.tb00879.x.
  9. David Ingle; Dianne Sahagian; Solution of a spatial constancy problem by goldfish. Physiological Psychology 1973, 1, 83-84, 10.3758/bf03326873.
  10. Kevin Warburton; The use of local landmarks by foraging goldfish. Animal Behaviour 1990, 40, 500-505, 10.1016/s0003-3472(05)80530-5.
  11. Cristina Broglio; Fernando Rodriguez; Cosme Salas; Spatial cognition and its neural basis in teleost fishes. Fish and Fisheries 2003, 4, 247-255, 10.1046/j.1467-2979.2003.00128.x.
  12. Lucy Odling‐Smee; Stephen D. Simpson; Victoria A. Braithwaite; The Role of Learning in Fish Orientation. Fish Cognition and Behavior 2011, 4, 166-185, 10.1002/9781444342536.ch8.
  13. Greta Baratti; Davide Potrich; Sang Ah Lee; Anastasia Morandi-Raikova; Valeria Anna Sovrano; The Geometric World of Fishes: A Synthesis on Spatial Reorientation in Teleosts. Animals 2022, 12, 881, 10.3390/ani12070881.
  14. Valeria Anna Sovrano; Davide Potrich; Augusto Foà; Cristiano Bertolucci; Extra-Visual Systems in the Spatial Reorientation of Cavefish. Scientific Reports 2018, 8, 17698, 10.1038/s41598-018-36167-9.
  15. Valeria Anna Sovrano; Greta Baratti; Davide Potrich; Cristiano Bertolucci; The geometry as an eyed fish feels it in spontaneous and rewarded spatial reorientation tasks. Scientific Reports 2020, 10, 1-14, 10.1038/s41598-020-64690-1.
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