The Central Nervous System and Fish Behavior (review)

BOOK REVIEW The Central Nervous System and Fish Behavior. Edited by David Ingle. Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1968. Pp. 272. $15.00. This volume contains a collection ofpapers that were presented at a symposium in April, 1967, at the University ofChicago. The symposium was sponsored by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Comparative Physiology Division of die American Zoological Society, and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. The volume contains papers covering a wide range oftopics dealing widi die anatomy and functional organization ofthe fish visual system, the function and anatomical organization ofthe forebrain, and psychological aspects offish behavior. Detailed discussions are presented by a number ofinvestigators dealing widi different types ofvisual capacities in fish. MarcusJacobson, for example, discusses the coding of yisual units from the electrophysiological point of view, to show that the retina deals primarily widi die detection ofcolor, form, and movement. Other work has shown that there are "on" units, "off" units, and "on-off" units, some ofwhich are color specific or directionally selective and some ofwhich differ in dieir rates ofadaptation. These latter are similar to dimming detectors described in die frog tectum by Maturana et al. in i960. David Inglepresents data showing that fish are capable ofresponding interocularly to the transfer ofvisual stimuli from one portion ofthe visual field to anodier and from the left visual field to die right field. Several papers on the forebrain are presented dealing widi such topics as regeneration in the olfactory system ofthe fish, effects offorebrain lesions on behavior, and memory function in fish. A very interesting discussion of die effects of unilateral hypothalamic lesions upon emotional behavior in goldfish is presented by Q. R. Regestein. It is pointed out diat in die fish as well as in die mammal die hypothalamus mediates certain types of emotional responses. Odier papers cover such topics as die control ofelectric organs in certain species of fish, the effectsoflow temperature onbehavioralconditioning, and recentresearchdealing with the molecular basis ofmemory. A series ofpapers dealing widi primarily behavioral aspects offish research, such as ethological studies, motivation and learning capacity, and a study ofdie mechanisms underlying homing and migration in fish such as the salmon and related species, complete die collection. The volume concludes widi a very interesting paperbyM. Bitterman,who comparesthe behavioralcapacitiesoffishandrats.Bitterman has shown that on some tasks die fish is actually superior to die rat. For example, in the learning ofreversals ofpreviously trained visual discriminations, moudibreeders outperform rats. In other types ofperformance, such as the study of "probability learning" in 476 Book Review Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1969 which one stimulus is reinforced 70 per cent ofdie time and anodier stimulus 30 per cent ofdie time, fish are not as adept as rats in developing a preference for responding to the more strongly reinforced stimulus. Fish also respond to changes in reward or "incentive shift." This work, in fact, clearly points out diat in inframammalian species certain basic units of behavior appear which persist in mammals, and similar learning capacities are present even though there are vast differences in cerebral structure. The Central Nervous System and Fish Behavior is an excellent collection ofpapers representing a very wide range oftopics. A healdiy trend in fish research is evident from the work presented in this volume. It is clear diat a branching ofinterest has occurred in the past decade from initial studies primarily limited to die goldfish to a more detailed study of a variety of species, including both freshwater and saltwater types. Fish behavior is certainly as diverse and complex as mammalian behavior, and so little is known that a comparative approach is needed to dojustice to diis new and rapidly growing field. Joel F. Lubar Department ofPsychology University of Tennessee 477 ...