(Press-News.org)
What if that proverbial man in the mirror was a fish? Would it change its ways? According to an Osaka Metropolitan University-led research group, yes, it would.
In what the researchers say in Scientific Reports is the first time for a non-human animal to be demonstrated to possess some mental states (e.g., mental body image, standards, intentions, goals), which are elements of private self-awareness, bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) checked their body size in a mirror before choosing whether to attack fish that were slightly larger or smaller than themselves.
The team of OMU Graduate School of Science student Taiga Kobayashi, Specially Appointed Professor Masanori Kohda, Professor Satoshi Awata, and Specially Appointed Researcher Shumpei Sogawa, and Professor Redouan Bshary of Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel, were among the group that last year reported the cleaner wrasse could identify photographs of itself as itself, based on its face through mirror self-recognition.
This time, the cleaner wrasse’s behavior of going to look in the mirror installed in a tank when necessary indicated the possibility that the fish were using the mirror to check their own body size against that of other fish and predict the outcome of fights.
“The results that fish can use the mirror as a tool can help clarify the similarities between human and non-human animal self-awareness and provide important clues to elucidate how self-awareness has evolved,” doctoral candidate Kobayashi declared.
###
About OMU
Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
END
LA JOLLA, CA—It’s a dogma taught in every introductory biology class: Proteins are composed of combinations of 20 different amino acids, arranged into diverse sequences like words. But researchers trying to engineer biologic molecules with new functions have long felt limited by those 20 basic building blocks and strived to develop ways of putting new building blocks—called non-canonical amino acids—into their proteins.
Now, scientists at Scripps Research have designed a new paradigm for easily adding non-canonical amino acids to proteins. Their approach, described in Nature Biotechnology on September 11, 2024, revolves around using ...
A groundbreaking study led by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus reveals that stress-induced changes in sperm motility occur after a stressful event, rather than during it and improves sperm performance. The discovery is essential in understanding how stress impacts the reproductive process to improve fetal development outcomes.
The study was published today in Nature Communications.
Over the last five decades, there has been a notable decline in semen quality, which has coincided with environmental stressors. This new research identifies how stress affects the ability of ...
Throat problems could impair autonomic nervous system's ability to regulate blood pressure
Research suggests problems at junction between air and food passages may ‘overwhelm’ the Vagus nerve
Patients with throat problems were less able to regulate their blood pressure in a new study led by the University of Southampton.
The study published in JAMA Otolaryngology is the first to observe reduced baroreflex sensitivity in patients with throat symptoms.
The baroreflex is a crucial part of the autonomic nervous system which detects changes ...
The Centre for Research and Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (The CRIB) is calling for decisive action to address the grief from homicide that is disproportionately affecting Black communities worldwide — and to tackle the root causes of homicide that impact this population.
In a paper published in the journal Homicide Studies, University of Toronto social work professor Tanya Sharpe and colleagues argue that the prevalence and spread of homicide grief — the grief that follows the ...
During social interactions, the activity of the brain’s neurons becomes synchronized between the individuals involved. New research published in Advanced Science reveals that such synchronization occurs between humans and dogs, with mutual gazing causing synchronization in the brain’s frontal region and petting causing synchronization in the parietal region. Both regions are associated with attention.
The strength of this synchronization increased with growing familiarity of human–dog pairs over 5 days, and tests indicated that the human is the leader while ...
New research published in Business Strategy and the Environment based on information from G7 countries demonstrates that green finance—loans, investments, and incentives that support environmentally-friendly projects and activities—can reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Also, data indicate that investments in green projects are profitable.
The study found that G7 countries' environmental conditions have been negatively impacted by economic development; however, there are advantages of green finance solutions for economic growth.
The study’s investigators ...
In an analysis of information on 164,170 older adult Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized for hip fractures, a similar proportion of Black and white beneficiaries used opioids after they were discharged and returned to the community, but Black beneficiaries consistently received lower doses of the pain medications.
In the study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, investigators observed that on average Black beneficiaries received the equivalent of around 250 fewer milligrams ...
Flowers that are pollinated by bats tend to have long stems that make them stand out from the surrounding foliage. New research published in New Phytologist reveals the evolutionary advantage that this characteristic provides to plants to ensure that they are discovered by bats.
In simple backgrounds lacking foliage, bats showed no significant difference in the time it took them to find flowers with long versus short stems, but in complex backgrounds (with arrays of leaves and flowers), bats took nearly twice as much time to locate short-stemmed flowers.
Investigators hypothesize that flowers located away from the surrounding foliage likely help bats to distinguish ...
The neurons of the brain are protected by an insulating layer called myelin. In certain diseases like multiple sclerosis, this protective layer is damaged and lost, leading to death of neurons and disability. New research published in The FEBS Journal reveals the importance of a protein called C1QL1 for promoting the replacement of the specialized cells that produce myelin. The findings could have important implications for the ongoing effort to develop new and improved therapies for the treatment of demyelinating diseases.
In experiments conducted in mice, deleting the gene that codes for C1QL1 caused a delay in the rate at which oligodendrocytes ...
Cells that die during inflammation send wound-healing messages
A study by the team of Prof. Kodi Ravichandran (VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research) and colleagues found that pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death traditionally thought to be purely inflammatory, also plays a crucial role in promoting healing and tissue repair. This research, published in Nature, opens new avenues for understanding how our bodies respond to injury and could lead to innovative treatments for wounds and inflammatory diseases.
Dying cells
About a billion cells ...
