A research team led by Professor Masanori Koda of the Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, said that freshwater fish in Africa, which are said to distinguish other individuals by their facial patterns, reduce their ability to distinguish when looking at images turned upside down. I found out.This is the first time in the world that the inverted effect of fish has been confirmed in a state that occurs in humans and chimpanzees, which is called the inverted effect of face recognition.
According to Osaka City University, it is known that the freshwater fish "Pulcher" of the cichlid family that inhabits Africa distinguishes fellow individuals by the pattern of their faces, and when they see an unknown individual, they frequently send their eyes and gaze. ..
Then, when I showed the faces of the individuals who knew and did not know, and the individuals who knew upside down, to the aquarium's puller, I looked at the individuals who knew upside down to the same extent as the individuals who did not know. I found out that I was sending.
Monkey companions such as humans and chimpanzees have facial nerves that specialize in quickly recognizing faces.When animals with facial nerves show their faces upside down, they have an inverted effect that reduces their ability to distinguish.
Professor Koda et al. Seem that the results of this experiment suggest that the puller has an inverted effect and may have facial nerves.It is possible that the facial nerves have been developed since the early stages of vertebrate evolution.
Professor Koda announced that "the basic form of facial nerves developed in humans may have already evolved at the stage of fish 4 million years ago."
Paper information:[Animal Cognition] Does a cichlid fish process face holistically? Evidence of the face inversion effect
