Biologists have found that fish can experience emotions and have consciousness – BBC

26.11.2015, 13:09

Researchers have shown that fish can experience emotions and their body reacts to stress, as well as more highly mammalian organism possessing consciousness. The full text of the study can be available in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B .

In the experiment, six groups of fish zebrafish. For the three groups of scientists have created a stressful situation – put them in a small fishing net. After some time, all the fish transplanted into water, which was divided into six compartments with different water temperature – from 17 to 35 ° C. Zebrafish could choose in what bay swim.

Fish that have been subjected to stress, chose the room with a warm water, and their body temperature was increased by 2 – 4 ° C compared with the rest of the zebrafish -rerio. The study’s authors argue that such a body’s response to stress is an example of so-called “emotional rush” – short-term increase in body temperature caused by emotional shock. Scientists believe that such a reaction occurs only in creatures with a developed brain, who are aware of what is happening to them and in the world. Birds, mammals, reptiles and one species previously passed a similar test on the “emotional fever”, but in amphibians and fish, the reaction is still not able to fix.