Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 24;10(1):1164. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-57813-1.
In humans, aging and neurodegenerative diseases have been found to be associated with impairment in both mathematical abilities and estimation of continuous quantities such as size, weight or distance. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly becoming a model for human aging and brain disorders but we currently lack any instrument for rapid assessment of quantity estimation abilities in this species. Here we developed a simple method based on spontaneous preference of zebrafish for using the larger available hole to pass an obstacle. We collected a large amount of data from small groups of zebrafish moving between compartments of their tank and we used these normative data to compare the performance of individually tested fish. Zebrafish significantly discriminated size ratios from 0.60 to 0.91 with their performance decreasing while increasing the size ratio between the smaller and the larger hole presented. On average, individually tested fish showed the same performance, but a large inter-individual variability was observed. Test-retest analyses revealed a good reliability of this test, with 0.60 and 0.75 ratios being the most informative. Experience did not affect individual performance, suggesting the suitability of this test to measure the longitudinal changes and the effects of pharmacological treatments on cognitive abilities.
在人类中，衰老和神经退行性疾病与数学能力以及对大小、重量或距离等连续量的估计能力受损有关。斑马鱼（Danio rerio）迅速成为人类衰老和大脑疾病的模型，但我们目前缺乏评估这种物种数量估计能力的快速方法。在这里，我们开发了一种基于斑马鱼自发偏好使用较大可用孔来通过障碍物的简单方法。我们从小群斑马鱼在鱼缸隔间之间移动中收集了大量数据，并使用这些规范数据来比较个体测试鱼的性能。斑马鱼能够以 0.60 到 0.91 的大小比率进行显著区分，而其表现随着较小和较大孔之间的比率增加而降低。平均而言，个体测试鱼的表现相同，但观察到个体间的差异较大。测试-再测试分析表明，该测试具有良好的可靠性，其中 0.60 和 0.75 的比率最具信息性。经验并不影响个体表现，这表明该测试适用于测量认知能力的纵向变化和药物治疗的效果。
