Cleaner fish are sensitive to what their partners can and cannot see

McAuliffe, Katherine; Drayton, Lindsey A.; Royka, Amanda; Aellen, Mélisande; Santos, Laurie R.; Bshary, Redouan

doi:10.1038/s42003-021-02584-2

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…One possibility is that Dualism is strictly a social invention that arises via cultural transmission alone. On an alternative account ( 1 ), Dualism emerges naturally, from the tension between two intuitive systems of core knowledge that are evident in young infants ( 30 , 31 ), and arguably, nonhuman animals ( 32 – 39 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide

Berent

Theodore

Valencia

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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People are intuitive Dualists—they tacitly consider the mind as ethereal, distinct from the body. Here we ask whether Dualism emerges naturally from the conflicting core principles that guide reasoning about objects, on the one hand, and about the minds of agents (theory of mind, ToM), on the other. To address this question, we explore Dualist reasoning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD)—a congenital disorder known to compromise ToM. If Dualism arises from ToM, then ASD ought to attenuate Dualism and promote Physicalism. In line with this prediction, Experiment 1 shows that, compared to controls, people with ASD are more likely to view psychological traits as embodied—as likely to manifest in a replica of one’s body. Experiment 2 demonstrates that, unlike controls, people with ASD do not consider thoughts as disembodied—as persistent in the afterlife (upon the body’s demise). If ASD promotes the perception of the psyche as embodied, and if (per Essentialism) embodiment suggests innateness, then ASD should further promote Nativism—this bias is shown in Experiment 3. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrates that, in neurotypical (NT) participants, difficulties with ToM correlate with Physicalism. These results are the first to show that ASD attenuates Dualist reasoning and to link Dualism to ToM. These conclusions suggest that the mind-body distinction might be natural for people to entertain.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide

Berent

Theodore

Valencia

2022

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Remarkably complex behaviors (tool use in the case of C. anchorago and T. hardwicke, 17,18 and social cognition in the case of L. dimidiatus [19][20][21] ) have been reported in the group of wrasses. Cichlids are phylogenetically close to wrasses and display relatively complex social and cognitive behaviors, although no instances of tool use have been observed [22][23][24][25] .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarkably complex behaviors (tool use in the case of C. anchorago and T. hardwicke (Bernardi, 2012; Paśko, 2010), and social cognition in the case of L. dimidiatus (Kohda et al, 2022; McAuliffe et al, 2021; Wismer et al, 2016)) have been reported in the group of wrasses. Cichlids are phylogenetically close to wrasses and display relatively complex social and cognitive behaviors, although no instances of tool use have been observed (Barks and Godin, 2013; Hotta et al, 2019; Schluessel et al, 2022; Snekser and Itzkowitz, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different ways of evolving tool-using brains in teleosts and amniotes

Estienne

Simion

Hagio

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In mammals and birds, tool-using species are characterized by a high degree of encephalization with a relatively large telencephalon containing a higher proportion of total brain neurons compared to other species. Some teleost species in the wrasse family have convergently evolved tool-using abilities. In this study, we compared the brains of tool-using wrasses with various teleost species from a broad phylogenetic range. We show that in the tool-using wrasses, the telencephalon and the ventral part of the forebrain and midbrain are significantly enlarged compared to other teleost species, but do not contain a larger proportion of cells. Instead, this size difference is due to large fiber tracts connecting the dorsal part of the telencephalon (pallium) to the inferior lobe (IL), a ventral mesencephalic structure absent in amniotes. Such tracts were not present in other teleost species such as trout, zebrafish, or the Astyanax surface fish. The high degree of connectivity between the IL and the pallium in tool-using wrasses suggests that this unique teleostean structure contributes to higher-order cognitive functions. Considering how remarkably different their overall brain organization is, we conclude that, unlike in amniotes, the evolution of non telencephalic structures might have been key in the emergence of higher-order cognitive functions in teleosts.

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“…There is an increasing number of examples of advanced cognitive capacity in fishes ( 47 , 48 ). Cleaner fish have emerged as a model system for the study of such advanced cognition, including perspective taking that is related to ToM ( 49 ). Nevertheless, there is no compelling reason to suspect that cleaner fish are exceptional within vertebrates or even within fish with respect to the underlying cognitive mechanisms allowing MSR ability (but see ref.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans

Kohda

Bshary

Kubo

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Some animals have the remarkable capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR), yet any implications for self-awareness remain uncertain and controversial. This is largely because explicit tests of the two potential mechanisms underlying MSR are still lacking: mental image of the self and kinesthetic visual matching. Here, we test the hypothesis that MSR ability in cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus , is associated with a mental image of the self, in particular the self-face, like in humans . Mirror-naive fish initially attacked photograph models of both themselves and unfamiliar strangers. In contrast, after all fish had passed the mirror mark test, fish did not attack their own (motionless) images, but still frequently attacked those of unfamiliar individuals. When fish were exposed to composite photographs, the self-face/unfamiliar body were not attacked, but photographs of unfamiliar face/self-body were attacked, demonstrating that cleaner fish with MSR capacity recognize their own facial characteristics in photographs. Additionally, when presented with self-photographs with a mark placed on the throat, unmarked mirror-experienced cleaner fish demonstrated throat-scraping behaviors. When combined, our results provide clear evidence that cleaner fish recognize themselves in photographs and that the likely mechanism for MSR is associated with a mental image of the self-face, not a kinesthetic visual-matching model. Humans are also capable of having a mental image of the self-face, which is considered an example of private self-awareness. We demonstrate that combining mirror test experiments with photographs has enormous potential to further our understanding of the evolution of cognitive processes and private self-awareness across nonhuman animals.

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Cleaner fish are sensitive to what their partners can and cannot see

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide

Autism attenuates the perception of the mind-body divide

Different ways of evolving tool-using brains in teleosts and amniotes

Cleaner fish recognize self in a mirror via self-face recognition like humans

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