Ring a bell? Variable recognition of a multicomponent auditory stimulus associated with predation risk by zebrafish responding to full and partial matches.

AUDITORY perception; PREDATION; BRACHYDANIO; RECOGNITION (Psychology); ZEBRA danio; ASSOCIATIVE learning; DILATATION & extraction abortion

Many fishes learn to recognize correlates of predation risk by pairing novel stimuli with injury-released chemical cues released from damaged epidermal tissues. Here, zebrafish were conditioned to associate predation risk with a three-note auditory stimulus C5 (523.25 Hz) + E5 (659.25 Hz) + G5 (783.99 Hz), then tested for responses to either only one tone (C), two of the components (C + G) or the full three-note chord (C + E + G). Zebrafish conditioned with alarm cues and C + E + G responded significantly more intensely to the full C + E + G stimulus or to partial representation of the original mix (C + G) than they did to the single element (C) of the original C + E + G conditioning stimulus. The lack of a response to the single component alone may be a failure to recognize the stimulus or an interpretation that the partial component is an indicator of low risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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