A recent face recognition study published by the journal Scientific Reports, revealed stunning new evidence to support the theory of animals recognizing faces, least of all by a fish, as it was able to recognize a familiar human face from dozens of other new faces with great accuracy.
Unexpected results of the face recognition study
The findings came as a complete surprise to researchers, because this is a first in the field of science where fish, though somewhat insignificant due to its size, was able to display such ability with stunning accuracy.
The study was conducted by a collaborative team from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and the University of Queensland in Australia, where the study findings was declared as a breakthrough in science and understanding of the brain.
This leads to breaking the norm that animals with bigger brains are more likely to handle complex brain functions, concluding that brain size does not matter.
Study co author and Oxford University research fellow, Dr. Cait Newport, said that they wanted to find out how animals with tiny brains can do fare in facial recognition. Aware that fish is believed to be missing a section of the brain used for facial recognition, it made them the perfect subjects for the study to see how well they could fare in performing this complex task.
They used an archerfish, which is known for its unique skill in hunting their prey by spitting out jet of water from the surface to shoot down insects perching on low-lying braches.
The archerfish, according to Newport, can clearly pick their choices by spitting on their targets where other fish could not. Their study group tested the fish by initially conditioning them to focus on a single image of photo and ‘bribing’ them by rewarding them with a meal pellet.
After several days and multiple test runs, they mixed the facial image with a bunch of up to 44 new faces and surprisingly the fish correctly ‘shot’ at the focused image 81% of the time.
They tried another experiment and this time, the pictures were printed black and white, as well as modifying the shapes of the heads to even it out. Surprisingly, the fish were undaunted and still shot at the same familiar face with even more accuracy at 86%.
The researchers are hoping to go beyond just using facial images for the tests and try other means to determine recognition.
The added that there are thousands of species of fish and many may not be able to display the same abilities with that of the archerfish, but hopes that future studies may be able to find more surprising answers more than just answer questions on a face recognition study.
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