Ruberto Tommaso, Polverino Giovanni, Porfiri Maurizio
New York University Tandon School of Engineering.
J Exp Anal Behav. 2017 Mar;107(2):279-293. doi: 10.1002/jeab.247. Epub 2017 Feb 22.
Robotics is emerging as a promising tool for aiding research on animal behavior. The possibility of generating customizable, controllable, and standardized robotic stimuli has been demonstrated through a number of behavioral assays, involving vertebrates and invertebrates. However, the specific appraisal of the nature of robotic stimuli is currently lacking. Here, we attempt to evaluate this aspect in zebrafish, through a within-subject design in which experimental subjects are faced with three experimental conditions. In the first test, we investigated sociability by measuring zebrafish response to a conspecific separated by a one-way glass. In the second test, we studied zebrafish behavior in response to a 3D-printed zebrafish replica actuated along realistic trajectories through a novel four-degree-of-freedom robotic platform. Last, we investigated fear responses in a shelter-seeking test. In agreement with our expectations, zebrafish exhibited an equivalent preference for live and robotic stimuli, and the degree of preference for the robotic replica correlated negatively with the individual propensity to seek shelter. The equivalent preference for the replica and conspecific suggests that the appraisal of the target stimuli is analogous. The preliminary evidence of a correlation between behavioral responses across tests points to the readability of robotics-based approaches to investigate interindividual differences.
机器人技术正成为辅助动物行为研究的一种有前景的工具。通过一些涉及脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的行为试验，已经证明了生成可定制、可控和标准化机器人刺激的可能性。然而，目前缺乏对机器人刺激本质的具体评估。在此，我们试图通过一种受试者内设计来评估斑马鱼在这方面的情况，在该设计中，实验对象面临三种实验条件。在第一个测试中，我们通过测量斑马鱼对隔着单向玻璃的同种个体的反应来研究社交性。在第二个测试中，我们研究了斑马鱼对通过一个新型四自由度机器人平台沿着逼真轨迹驱动的3D打印斑马鱼复制品的行为反应。最后，我们在一个寻求庇护所测试中研究了恐惧反应。与我们的预期一致，斑马鱼对活体和机器人刺激表现出同等的偏好，并且对机器人复制品的偏好程度与个体寻求庇护所的倾向呈负相关。对复制品和同种个体的同等偏好表明对目标刺激的评估是类似的。跨测试行为反应之间相关性的初步证据表明基于机器人技术的方法在研究个体间差异方面具有可读性。
