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Visibelli E, Vigna G, Nascimben C, Benavides-Varela S. Neurobiology of numerical learning. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 158:105545. [PMID: 38220032 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 12/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 01/16/2024]
Abstract
Numerical abilities are complex cognitive skills essential for dealing with requirements of the modern world. Although the brain structures and functions underlying numerical cognition in different species have long been appreciated, genetic and molecular techniques have more recently expanded the knowledge about the mechanisms underlying numerical learning. In this review, we discuss the status of the research related to the neurobiological bases of numerical abilities. We consider how genetic factors have been associated with mathematical capacities and how these link to the current knowledge of brain regions underlying these capacities in human and non-human animals. We further discuss the extent to which significant variations in the levels of specific neurotransmitters may be used as potential markers of individual performance and learning difficulties and take into consideration the therapeutic potential of brain stimulation methods to modulate learning and improve interventional outcomes. The implications of this research for formulating a more comprehensive view of the neural basis of mathematical learning are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma Visibelli
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Giulia Vigna
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Chiara Nascimben
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Silvia Benavides-Varela
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
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2
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Yang H, Jia L, Zhu J, Zhang J, Li M, Li C, Pan Y. The interplay of motor adaptation and groupitizing in numerosity perception: Insights from visual motion adaptation and proprioceptive motor adaptation. PeerJ 2024; 12:e16887. [PMID: 38436019 PMCID: PMC10906262 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Groupitizing is a well-established strategy in numerosity perception that enhances speed and sensory precision. Building on the ATOM theory, Anobile proposed the sensorimotor numerosity system, which posits a strong link between number and action. Previous studies using motor adaptation technology have shown that high-frequency motor adaptation leads to underestimation of numerosity perception, while low-frequency adaptation leads to overestimation. However, the impact of motor adaptation on groupitizing, and whether visual motion adaptation produces similar effects, remain unclear. In this study, we investigate the persistence of the advantage of groupitizing after motor adaptation and explore the effects of visual motion adaptation. Surprisingly, our findings reveal that proprioceptive motor adaptation weakens the advantage of groupitizing, indicating a robust effect of motor adaptation even when groupitizing is employed. Moreover, we observe a bidirectional relationship, as groupitizing also weakens the adaptation effect. These results highlight the complex interplay between motor adaptation and groupitizing in numerosity perception. Furthermore, our study provides evidence that visual motion adaptation also has an adaptation effect, but does not fully replicate the effects of proprioceptive motor adaptation on groupitizing. In conclusion, our research underscores the importance of groupitizing as a valuable strategy in numerosity perception, and sheds light on the influence of motion adaptation on this strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huanyu Yang
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Liangzhi Jia
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Jun Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Jian Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Mengmeng Li
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Chenli Li
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
| | - Yun Pan
- Key Laboratory of Basic Psychological and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
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3
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Rugani R, Platt ML, Zhang Y, Brannon EM. Magnitude shifts spatial attention from left to right in rhesus monkeys as in the human mental number line. iScience 2024; 27:108866. [PMID: 38318369 PMCID: PMC10838727 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108866] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Revised: 11/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Humans typically represent numbers and quantities along a left-to-right continuum. Early perspectives attributed number-space association to culture; however, recent evidence in newborns and animals challenges this hypothesis. We investigate whether the length of an array of dots influences spatial bias in rhesus macaques. We designed a touch-screen task that required monkeys to remember the location of a target. At test, monkeys maintained high performance with arrays of 2, 4, 6, or 10 dots, regardless of changes in the array's location, spacing, and length. Monkeys remembered better left targets with 2-dot arrays and right targets with 6- or 10-dot arrays. Replacing the 10-dot array with a long bar, yielded more accurate performance with rightward locations, consistent with an underlying left-to-right oriented magnitude code. Our study supports the hypothesis of a spatially oriented mental magnitude line common to humans and animals, countering the idea that this code arises from uniquely human cultural learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa Rugani
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Michael L. Platt
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Marketing Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Yujia Zhang
- Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - Elizabeth M. Brannon
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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4
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Howard SR, Dyer AG. Quantity misperception by hymenopteran insects observing the solitaire illusion. iScience 2024; 27:108697. [PMID: 38288356 PMCID: PMC10823103 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 10/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2024] Open
Abstract
Visual illusions are errors in signal perception and inform us about the visual and cognitive processes of different animals. Invertebrates are relatively less studied for their illusionary perception, despite the insight that comparative data provides on the evolution of common perceptual mechanisms. The Solitaire Illusion is a numerosity illusion where a viewer typically misperceives the relative quantities of two items of different colors consisting of identical quantity, with more centrally clustered items appearing more numerous. We trained European honeybees (Apis mellifera) and European wasps (Vespula vulgaris) to select stimuli containing a higher quantity of yellow dots in arrays of blue and yellow dots and then presented them with the Solitaire Illusion. Insects learnt to discriminate between dot quantities and showed evidence of perceiving the Solitaire Illusion. Further work should determine whether the illusion is caused by numerical cues only or by both quantity and non-numerical spatial cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scarlett R. Howard
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Adrian G. Dyer
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Institute of Developmental Biology and Neurobiology (iDN), Johannes Gutenberg University, 55122 Mainz, Germany
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5
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Shrestha M, Tai KC, Dyer AG, Garcia JE, Yang EC, Jentsch A, Wang CN. Flower colour and size-signals vary with altitude and resulting climate on the tropical-subtropical islands of Taiwan. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2024; 15:1304849. [PMID: 38362451 PMCID: PMC10867191 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1304849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
The diversity of flower colours in nature provides quantifiable evidence for how visitations by colour sensing insect pollinators can drive the evolution of angiosperm visual signalling. Recent research shows that both biotic and abiotic factors may influence flower signalling, and that harsher climate conditions may also promote salient signalling to entice scarcer pollinators to visit. In parallel, a more sophisticated appreciation of the visual task foragers face reveals that bees have a complex visual system that uses achromatic vision when moving fast, whilst colour vision requires slower, more careful inspection of targets. Spectra of 714 native flowering species across Taiwan from sea level to mountainous regions 3,300 m above sea level (a.s.l.) were measured. We modelled how the visual system of key bee pollinators process signals, including flower size. By using phylogenetically informed analyses, we observed that at lower altitudes including foothills and submontane landscapes, there is a significant relationship between colour contrast and achromatic signals. Overall, the frequency of flowers with high colour contrast increases with altitude, whilst flower size decreases. The evidence that flower colour signaling becomes increasingly salient in higher altitude conditions supports that abiotic factors influence pollinator foraging in a way that directly influences how flowering plants need to advertise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mani Shrestha
- Department of Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - King-Chun Tai
- Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Adrian G. Dyer
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Jair E. Garcia
- Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - En-Cheng Yang
- Department of Entomology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Anke Jentsch
- Department of Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
| | - Chun-Neng Wang
- Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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6
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Bortot M, Vallortigara G. Transfer from continuous to discrete quantities in honeybees. iScience 2023; 26:108035. [PMID: 37860770 PMCID: PMC10582340 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Revised: 08/27/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Honeybees can estimate quantities having different dimensions: continuous and uncountable such as the relative size of visual objects in an array, or discrete and countable such as the number of objects of the array. Honeybees can transfer quantity discrimination (i.e., choosing the larger/smaller stimulus) from number to size. Here, we investigated whether honeybees could also generalize from the size (continuous) to the number (discrete) dimension. We trained free-flying foragers to discriminate between large- and small-size elements. At test, bees were presented with a comparison between larger and smaller numerosities controlled for different continuous variables covarying with numerosity such as total area, total perimeter, convex hull, and element size. Results showed that bees generalized from the size to the numerical dimension of the stimuli. This cross-dimensional transfer supports the idea of a universal mechanism for the encoding of abstract magnitudes in invertebrate species comparable to that of vertebrate species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Bortot
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
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7
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Gazes RP, Templer VL, Lazareva OF. Thinking about order: a review of common processing of magnitude and learned orders in animals. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:299-317. [PMID: 36369418 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01713-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
Rich behavioral and neurobiological evidence suggests cognitive and neural overlap in how quantitatively comparable dimensions such as quantity, time, and space are processed in humans and animals. While magnitude domains such as physical magnitude, time, and space represent information that can be quantitatively compared (4 "is half of" 8), they also represent information that can be organized ordinally (1→2→3→4). Recent evidence suggests that the common representations seen across physical magnitude, time, and space domains in humans may be due to their common ordinal features rather than their common quantitative features, as these common representations appear to extend beyond magnitude domains to include learned orders. In this review, we bring together separate lines of research on multiple ordinal domains including magnitude-based and learned orders in animals to explore the extent to which there is support for a common cognitive process underlying ordinal processing. Animals show similarities in performance patterns across natural quantitatively comparable ordered domains (physical magnitude, time, space, dominance) and learned orders (acquired through transitive inference or simultaneous chaining). Additionally, they show transfer and interference across tasks within and between ordinal domains that support the theory of a common ordinal representation across domains. This review provides some support for the development of a unified theory of ordinality and suggests areas for future research to better characterize the extent to which there are commonalities in cognitive processing of ordinal information generally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regina Paxton Gazes
- Department of Psychology and Program in Animal Behavior, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA.
| | | | - Olga F Lazareva
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Drake University, Des Moines, IA, USA
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8
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Abstract
The ability to judge numbers exists in various vertebrate species but also in honey bees, thus raising the question of the phylogenetic origins of numerosity systems. Here, we studied if bees, like humans, organize numbers spatially from left to right according to their magnitude. As the cultural vs. biological origins of this mental number line (MNL) are a subject of debate, our study provides an important perspective for this discussion. We show that bees order numbers from left to right according to their magnitude and that the location of a number on that line varies with the reference number previously trained. Thus, the MNL is a biological numeric representation that is common to the nervous system with distant evolutionary origins. The “mental number line” (MNL) is a form of spatial numeric representation that associates small and large numbers with the left and right spaces, respectively. This spatio-numeric organization can be found in adult humans and has been related to cultural factors such as writing and reading habits. Yet, both human newborns and birds order numbers consistently with an MNL, thus raising the question of whether culture is a main explanation for MNL. Here, we explored the numeric sense of honey bees and show that after being trained to associate numbers with a sucrose reward, they order numbers not previously experienced from left to right according to their magnitude. Importantly, the location of a number on that scale varies with the reference number previously trained and does not depend on low-level cues present on numeric stimuli. We provide a series of neural explanations for this effect based on the extensive knowledge accumulated on the neural underpinnings of visual processing in honey bees and conclude that the MNL is a form of numeric representation that is evolutionarily conserved across nervous systems endowed with a sense of number, irrespective of their neural complexity.
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9
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Decarli G, Rämä P, Granjon L, Veggiotti L, de Hevia MD. Electrophysiological Evidence for A Number-Action Mapping in Infancy. Brain Sci 2022; 12:1480. [PMID: 36358406 PMCID: PMC9688680 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12111480] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2022] [Revised: 10/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/29/2022] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
In the last decades, a growing body of literature has focused on the link between number and action. Many studies conducted on adult participants have provided evidence for a bidirectional influence between numerosity processing and grasping or reaching actions. However, it is not yet clear whether this link is functional in early infancy. Here, we used the event-related potential (ERP) technique to record electrical activity of the brain in response to number-hand pairings. We implemented a cueing paradigm where 3- to 4-month-old infants observed images showing either congruency (e.g., a large numerosity primed by a large hand opening) or incongruency (e.g., a large numerosity primed by a small hand opening). Infants' brain activity was modulated by the congruency of the pairings: amplitudes recorded over frontal and parietal-occipital scalp positions differed for congruent versus incongruent pairings. These findings suggest that the association between number and hand action processing is already functional early in life.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Maria Dolores de Hevia
- Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center, Université Paris Cité, CNRS, F-75006 Paris, France
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10
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Vallortigara G, Lorenzi E, Messina A, Perrino M. Magnitudes for Nervous Systems: Theoretical Issues and Experimental Evidence. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1177/09637214221102146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Animals’ negotiations with the environment frequently involve quantitative assessments. However, it is largely unknown how different nervous systems can deal with information about magnitude and perform operations on it. Here we review some of the literature on this topic and discuss a few issues worthy of debate that can guide future research directions. First, we present experimental evidence suggesting that, in addition to the cortical (pallial) brain regions that are widely acknowledged to play a role in magnitude estimation, subcortical (more generally, subpallial) brain regions also play an important role. Second, we discuss interactions between different domains of magnitude and put forward a hypothesis to account for the directionality of associations between discrete and continuous magnitude. Finally, we suggest how the distinction between the concepts of number and discrete quantity should foster more attention to the role of sensory areas and circuits in assessing discrete quantities.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Elena Lorenzi
- Centre for Mind/Brain Science (CIMeC), University of Trento
| | - Andrea Messina
- Centre for Mind/Brain Science (CIMeC), University of Trento
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11
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Howard SR, Greentree J, Avarguès-Weber A, Garcia JE, Greentree AD, Dyer AG. Numerosity Categorization by Parity in an Insect and Simple Neural Network. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.805385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A frequent question as technology improves and becomes increasingly complex, is how we enable technological solutions and models inspired by biological systems. Creating technology based on humans is challenging and costly as human brains and cognition are complex. The honeybee has emerged as a valuable comparative model which exhibits some cognitive-like behaviors. The relative simplicity of the bee brain compared to large mammalian brains enables learning tasks, such as categorization, that can be mimicked by simple neural networks. Categorization of abstract concepts can be essential to how we understand complex information. Odd and even numerical processing is known as a parity task in human mathematical representations, but there appears to be a complete absence of research exploring parity processing in non-human animals. We show that free-flying honeybees can visually acquire the capacity to differentiate between odd and even quantities of 1–10 geometric elements and extrapolate this categorization to the novel numerosities of 11 and 12, revealing that such categorization is accessible to a comparatively simple system. We use this information to construct a neural network consisting of five neurons that can reliably categorize odd and even numerosities up to 40 elements. While the simple neural network is not directly based on the biology of the honeybee brain, it was created to determine if simple systems can replicate the parity categorization results we observed in honeybees. This study thus demonstrates that a task, previously only shown in humans, is accessible to a brain with a comparatively small numbers of neurons. We discuss the possible mechanisms or learning processes allowing bees to perform this categorization task, which range from numeric explanations, such as counting, to pairing elements and memorization of stimuli or patterns. The findings should encourage further testing of parity processing in a wider variety of animals to inform on its potential biological roots, evolutionary drivers, and potential technology innovations for concept processing.
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12
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Schluessel V, Kreuter N, Gosemann IM, Schmidt E. Cichlids and stingrays can add and subtract 'one' in the number space from one to five. Sci Rep 2022; 12:3894. [PMID: 35361791 PMCID: PMC8971382 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-07552-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The numerical understanding of cichlids and stingrays was examined regarding addition and subtraction abilities within the number space of one to five. Experiments were conducted as two-alternative forced-choice experiments, using a delayed matching to sample technique. On each trial, fish had to perform either an addition or subtraction, based on the presentation of two-dimensional objects in two distinct colors, with the color signaling a particular arithmetic process. Six cichlids and four stingrays successfully completed training and recognized specific colors as symbols for addition and subtraction. Cichlids needed more sessions than stingrays to reach the learning criterion. Transfer tests showed that learning was independent of straightforward symbol memorization. Individuals did not just learn to pick the highest or lowest number presented based on the respective color; instead, learning was specific to adding or subtracting ‘one’. Although group results were significant for both species in all tests, individual results varied. Addition was learned more easily than subtraction by both species. While cichlids learned faster than stingrays, and more cichlids than stingrays learned the task, individual performance of stingrays exceeded that of cichlids. Previous studies have provided ample evidence that fish have numerical abilities on par with those of other vertebrate and invertebrate species tested, a result that is further supported by the findings of the current study.
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Affiliation(s)
- V Schluessel
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany.
| | - N Kreuter
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - I M Gosemann
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
| | - E Schmidt
- Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany
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13
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Messina A, Potrich D, Schiona I, Sovrano VA, Vallortigara G. The Sense of Number in Fish, with Particular Reference to Its Neurobiological Bases. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11113072. [PMID: 34827804 PMCID: PMC8614421 DOI: 10.3390/ani11113072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary The ability to deal with quantity, both discrete (numerosities) and continuous (spatial or temporal extent) developed from an evolutionarily conserved system for approximating numerical magnitude. Non-symbolic number cognition based on an approximate sense of magnitude has been documented in a variety of vertebrate species, including fish. Fish, in particular zebrafish, are widely used as models for the investigation of the genetics and molecular mechanisms of behavior, and thus may be instrumental to development of a neurobiology of number cognition. We review here the behavioural studies that have permitted to identify numerical abilities in fish, and the current status of the research related to the neurobiological bases of these abilities with special reference to zebrafish. Combining behavioural tasks with molecular genetics, molecular biology and confocal microscopy, a role of the retina and optic tectum in the encoding of continuous magnitude in larval zebrafish has been reported, while the thalamus and the dorso-central subdivision of pallium in the encoding of discrete magnitude (number) has been documented in adult zebrafish. Research in fish, in particular zebrafish, may reveal instrumental for identifying and characterizing the molecular signature of neurons involved in quantity discrimination processes of all vertebrates, including humans. Abstract It is widely acknowledged that vertebrates can discriminate non-symbolic numerosity using an evolutionarily conserved system dubbed Approximate Number System (ANS). Two main approaches have been used to assess behaviourally numerosity in fish: spontaneous choice tests and operant training procedures. In the first, animals spontaneously choose between sets of biologically-relevant stimuli (e.g., conspecifics, food) differing in quantities (smaller or larger). In the second, animals are trained to associate a numerosity with a reward. Although the ability of fish to discriminate numerosity has been widely documented with these methods, the molecular bases of quantities estimation and ANS are largely unknown. Recently, we combined behavioral tasks with molecular biology assays (e.g c-fos and egr1 and other early genes expression) showing that the thalamus and the caudal region of dorso-central part of the telencephalon seem to be activated upon change in numerousness in visual stimuli. In contrast, the retina and the optic tectum mainly responded to changes in continuous magnitude such as stimulus size. We here provide a review and synthesis of these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Messina
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy; (D.P.); (I.S.); (V.A.S.)
- Correspondence: (A.M.); (G.V.)
| | - Davide Potrich
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy; (D.P.); (I.S.); (V.A.S.)
| | - Ilaria Schiona
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy; (D.P.); (I.S.); (V.A.S.)
| | - Valeria Anna Sovrano
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy; (D.P.); (I.S.); (V.A.S.)
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Giorgio Vallortigara
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy; (D.P.); (I.S.); (V.A.S.)
- Correspondence: (A.M.); (G.V.)
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14
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Howard SR. Wild non-eusocial bees learn a colour discrimination task in response to simulated predation events. Naturwissenschaften 2021; 108:28. [PMID: 34152477 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-021-01739-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Revised: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Despite representing the majority of bee species, non-eusocial bees (e.g. solitary, subsocial, semisocial, and quasisocial species) are comparatively understudied in learning, memory, and cognitive-like behaviour compared to eusocial bees, such as honeybees and bumblebees. Ecologically relevant colour discrimination tasks are well-studied in eusocial bees, and research has shown that a few non-eusocial bee species are also capable of colour learning and long-term memory retention. Australia hosts over 2000 native bee species, most of which are non-eusocial, yet evidence of cognitive-like behaviour and learning abilities under controlled testing conditions is lacking. In the current study, I examine the learning ability of a non-eusocial Australian bee, Lasioglossum (Chilalictus) lanarium, using aversive differential conditioning during a colour discrimination task. L. lanarium learnt to discriminate between salient blue- and yellow-coloured stimuli following training with simulated predation events. This study acts as a bridge between cognitive studies on eusocial and non-social bees and introduces a framework for testing non-eusocial wild bees on elemental visual learning tasks using aversive conditioning. Non-eusocial bee species are far more numerous than eusocial species and contribute to agriculture, economics, and ecosystem services in Australia and across the globe. Thus, it is important to study their capacity to learn flower traits allowing for successful foraging and pollination events, thereby permitting us a better understanding of their role in plant-pollinator interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scarlett R Howard
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia.
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15
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Lorenzi E, Perrino M, Vallortigara G. Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View. Front Psychol 2021; 12:641994. [PMID: 33935896 PMCID: PMC8082025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Lorenzi
- Centre for Mind/Brain Science, CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
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16
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Corliss M, Brown T, Hurly TA, Healy SD, Tello-Ramos MC. Estimating on the fly: The approximate number system in rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus). Learn Behav 2021; 49:67-75. [PMID: 33319341 PMCID: PMC7979633 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00448-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
When presented with resources that differ in quantity, many animals use a numerosity system to discriminate between them. One taxonomically widespread system is the approximate number system. This is a numerosity system that allows the rapid evaluation of the number of objects in a group and which is regulated by Weber's Law. Here we investigated whether wild, free-living rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) possess an approximate number system. The hummingbirds were presented with two experiments. In the first we investigated whether hummingbirds spontaneously chose an array containing more flowers than an alternate array. In the second we asked whether the hummingbirds could learn to use numerosity as a cue to which of two arrays contained the better reward. The birds did not spontaneously prefer an array containing more flowers. After minimal training, however, they learned to choose the more numerous array and could differentiate between arrays of five and seven flowers. These data support the presence of an approximate number system in the rufous hummingbird. It seems plausible that having such a system would enable much more efficient foraging in this species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mia Corliss
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK
| | - Theo Brown
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK
| | - T Andrew Hurly
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
| | - Susan D Healy
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9TH, UK.
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17
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MaBouDi H, Barron AB, Li S, Honkanen M, Loukola OJ, Peng F, Li W, Marshall JAR, Cope A, Vasilaki E, Solvi C. Non-numerical strategies used by bees to solve numerical cognition tasks. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20202711. [PMID: 33593192 PMCID: PMC7934903 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined how bees solve a visual discrimination task with stimuli commonly used in numerical cognition studies. Bees performed well on the task, but additional tests showed that they had learned continuous (non-numerical) cues. A network model using biologically plausible visual feature filtering and a simple associative rule was capable of learning the task using only continuous cues inherent in the training stimuli, with no numerical processing. This model was also able to reproduce behaviours that have been considered in other studies indicative of numerical cognition. Our results support the idea that a sense of magnitude may be more primitive and basic than a sense of number. Our findings highlight how problematic inadvertent continuous cues can be for studies of numerical cognition. This remains a deep issue within the field that requires increased vigilance and cleverness from the experimenter. We suggest ways of better assessing numerical cognition in non-speaking animals, including assessing the use of all alternative cues in one test, using cross-modal cues, analysing behavioural responses to detect underlying strategies, and finding the neural substrate.
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Affiliation(s)
- HaDi MaBouDi
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
| | - Andrew B Barron
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK.,Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - Sun Li
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Maria Honkanen
- Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Olli J Loukola
- Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
| | - Fei Peng
- Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Wenfeng Li
- Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Science, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - James A R Marshall
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
| | - Alex Cope
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
| | - Eleni Vasilaki
- Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DP, UK
| | - Cwyn Solvi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia.,School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK
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18
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Bisazza A, Gatto E. Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges. Sci Rep 2021; 11:3757. [PMID: 33580099 PMCID: PMC7881015 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82249-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability of invertebrates to discriminate quantities is poorly studied, and it is unknown whether other phyla possess the same richness and sophistication of quantification mechanisms observed in vertebrates. The dune snail, Theba pisana, occupies a harsh habitat characterised by sparse vegetation and diurnal soil temperatures well above the thermal tolerance of this species. To survive, a snail must locate and climb one of the rare tall herbs each dawn and spend the daytime hours in an elevated refuge position. Based on their ecology, we predicted that dune snails would prefer larger to smaller groups of refuges. We simulated shelter choice under controlled laboratory conditions. Snails’ acuity in discriminating quantity of shelters was comparable to that of mammals and birds, reaching the 4 versus 5 item discrimination, suggesting that natural selection could drive the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities even in small-brained animals if these functions have a high survival value. In a subsequent series of experiments, we investigated whether snails used numerical information or based their decisions upon continuous quantities, such as cumulative surface, density or convex hull, which co-varies with number. Though our results tend to underplay the role of these continuous cues, behavioural data alone are insufficient to determine if dune snails were using numerical information, leaving open the question of whether gastropod molluscans possess elementary abilities for numerical processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angelo Bisazza
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.,Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Elia Gatto
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
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19
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Bortot M, Regolin L, Vallortigara G. A sense of number in invertebrates. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2020; 564:37-42. [PMID: 33280818 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.11.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Non-symbolic numerical abilities are widespread among vertebrates due to their important adaptive value. Moreover, these abilities were considered peculiar of vertebrate species as numerical competence is regarded as cognitively sophisticated. However, recent evidence convincingly showed that this is not the case: invertebrates, with their limited number of neurons, proved able to successfully discriminate different quantities (e.g., of prey), to use the ordinal property of numbers, to solve arithmetic operations as addition and subtraction and even to master the concept of zero numerosity. To date, though, the debate is still open on the presence and the nature of a «sense of number» in invertebrates. Whether this is peculiar for discrete countable quantities (numerosities) or whether this is part of a more general magnitude system dealing with both discrete and continuous quantities, as hypothesized for humans and other vertebrates. Here we reviewed the main studies on numerical abilities of invertebrates, discussing in particular the recent findings supporting the hypothesis of a general mechanism that allows for processing of both discrete (i.e., number) and continuous dimensions (e.g., space).
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Bortot
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
| | - Lucia Regolin
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
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20
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Srinivasan MV. Vision, perception, navigation and 'cognition' in honeybees and applications to aerial robotics. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2020; 564:4-17. [PMID: 33220922 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2020.09.052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 09/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
This review summarizes research carried out in the author's laboratory investigating the ways in which honeybees use vision to guide their flight and navigate in their environment, and describes how these principles have been used to design, build and test biologically-inspired systems for the guidance and navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles. It also outlines studies investigating the capacities of honeybees in the areas of visual perception, pattern recognition, and 'cognition'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mandyam V Srinivasan
- The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
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21
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Different mechanisms underlie implicit visual statistical learning in honey bees and humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:25923-25934. [PMID: 32989162 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1919387117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability of developing complex internal representations of the environment is considered a crucial antecedent to the emergence of humans' higher cognitive functions. Yet it is an open question whether there is any fundamental difference in how humans and other good visual learner species naturally encode aspects of novel visual scenes. Using the same modified visual statistical learning paradigm and multielement stimuli, we investigated how human adults and honey bees (Apis mellifera) encode spontaneously, without dedicated training, various statistical properties of novel visual scenes. We found that, similarly to humans, honey bees automatically develop a complex internal representation of their visual environment that evolves with accumulation of new evidence even without a targeted reinforcement. In particular, with more experience, they shift from being sensitive to statistics of only elemental features of the scenes to relying on co-occurrence frequencies of elements while losing their sensitivity to elemental frequencies, but they never encode automatically the predictivity of elements. In contrast, humans involuntarily develop an internal representation that includes single-element and co-occurrence statistics, as well as information about the predictivity between elements. Importantly, capturing human visual learning results requires a probabilistic chunk-learning model, whereas a simple fragment-based memory-trace model that counts occurrence summary statistics is sufficient to replicate honey bees' learning behavior. Thus, humans' sophisticated encoding of sensory stimuli that provides intrinsic sensitivity to predictive information might be one of the fundamental prerequisites of developing higher cognitive abilities.
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22
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Application of an abstract concept across magnitude dimensions by fish. Sci Rep 2020; 10:16935. [PMID: 33037309 PMCID: PMC7547013 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74037-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Mastering relational concepts and applying them to different contexts presupposes abstraction capacities and implies a high level of cognitive sophistication. One way to investigate extrapolative abilities is to assess cross-dimensional application of an abstract relational magnitude rule to new domains. Here we show that angelfish initially trained to choose either the shorter of two lines in a spatial task (line-length discrimination task) or the array with “fewer” items (numerical discrimination task) spontaneously transferred the learnt rule to novel stimuli belonging to the previously unseen dimension demonstrating knowledge of the abstract concept of “smaller”. Our finding challenges the idea that the ability to master abstract magnitude concepts across domains is unique to humans and suggests that the circuits involved in rule learning and magnitude processing might be evolutionary conserved.
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23
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Response of male and female domestic chicks to change in the number (quantity) of imprinting objects. Learn Behav 2020; 49:54-66. [PMID: 33025570 PMCID: PMC7979580 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00446-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/12/2020] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
When facing two sets of imprinting objects of different numerousness, domestic chicks prefer to approach the larger one. Given that choice for familiar and novel stimuli in imprinting situations is known to be affected by the sex of the animals, we investigated how male and female domestic chicks divide the time spent in the proximity of a familiar versus an unfamiliar number of objects, and how animals interact (by pecking) with these objects. We confirmed that chicks discriminate among the different numerousnesses, but we also showed that females and males behave differently, depending on the degree of familiarity of the objects. When objects in the testing sets were all familiar, females equally explored both sets and pecked at all objects individually. Males instead selectively approached the familiar numerousness and pecked more at it. When both testing sets comprised familiar as well as novel objects, both males and females approached the larger numerousness of familiar objects. However, chicks directed all their pecks toward the novel object within the set. Differences in the behavior of males and females can be accounted for in terms of sex difference in the motivation to reinstate social contact with the familiar objects and to explore novel ones, likely associated with the ecology and the social structure of the species before domestication.
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24
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Vámos TIF, Tello-Ramos MC, Hurly TA, Healy SD. Numerical ordinality in a wild nectarivore. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201269. [PMID: 32635875 PMCID: PMC7423482 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Ordinality is a numerical property that nectarivores may use to remember the specific order in which to visit a sequence of flowers, a foraging strategy also known as traplining. In this experiment, we tested whether wild, free-living rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) could use ordinality to visit a rewarded flower. Birds were presented with a series of linear arrays of 10 artificial flowers; only one flower in each array was rewarded with sucrose solution. During training, birds learned to locate the correct flower independent of absolute spatial location. The birds' accuracy was independent of the rewarded ordinal position (1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th), which suggests that they used an object-indexing mechanism of numerical processing, rather than a magnitude-based system. When distance cues between flowers were made irrelevant during test trials, birds could still locate the correct flower. The distribution of errors during both training and testing indicates that the birds may have used a so-called working up strategy to locate the correct ordinal position. These results provide the first demonstration of numerical ordinal abilities in a wild vertebrate and suggest that such abilities could be used during foraging in the wild.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tas I. F. Vámos
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
| | | | - T. Andrew Hurly
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
| | - Susan D. Healy
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
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