Abstract
Parallel visual search mechanisms have been reported previously only in mammals and birds, and not animals lacking an expanded telencephalon such as bees. Here we report the first evidence for parallel visual search in fish using a choice task where the fish had to find a target amongst an increasing number of distractors. Following two-choice discrimination training, zebrafish were presented with the original stimulus within an increasing array of distractor stimuli. We found that zebrafish exhibit no significant change in accuracy and approach latency as the number of distractors increased, providing evidence of parallel processing. This evidence challenges theories of vertebrate neural architecture and the importance of an expanded telencephalon for the evolution of executive function.
Highlights
Prioritising sensory information is a fundamental problem for all animals
The parallel processing exhibited by the zebrafish here is likely of a limited capacity
Pop-out would suggest extremely rapid responses, as seen in humans for a task such as this. As these responses by the fish are slower, they are not pop-out yet still parallel as the response times do not increase with the increase in the number of items in the display
Summary
Prioritising sensory information is a fundamental problem for all animals. Even the relatively large human brain [1] can process only a fraction of the potential input [2]. The most efficient way to process information is to process multiple fragments of information in parallel, such as evaluating several objects in visual search to detect a target [3,4]. Parallel visual search has far only been discovered in primates [4], rats [6], and pigeons [7]. Such visual processing abilities are often thought to be supported only by neural circuits in cortical areas [8]. Consistent with a cortexdependent mechanism, animals lacking an expanded telencephalon like honeybees [9] use serial visual search mechanisms and cannot assess multiple items in parallel
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