Fish play video game
in new behaviour study
The bluegill sunfish
were put off by the computer-generated prey when it moved in groups
Researchers have used a video game projected
into a fish tank to study the behaviour of predatory bluegill sunfish.
The team at Princeton University developed a
simulation based on the type of prey favoured by the species.
The simple "game" featured red dots
which moved and swarmed in different ways against a translucent screen.
They found that the fish were less likely to
try to attack the dots when they moved in a group formation.
The research has been published in the
Science journal.
Senior researcher Dr Iain Couzin is from the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.
"By creating immersive video game for the
fish we were able to have complete control over the parameters," he told
BBC News.
"Trying to do this experiment with
natural grouping prey items, it would have been impossible to understand or
control what was going on."
Simple
prey
The size and colour of the simple prey
graphics were carefully designed, he said.
"An undergraduate student worked the
entire summer on the exact type of dot to use. We tested out a whole range of
different types of dots.
"We knew they liked to target slightly
red objects, we knew the speed of their natural prey.
"As far as we know the fish were not
aware that (our graphics) were just little dots."
He said it was important that the game had
been coded so that the movement of the dots did not become predictable.
"In any computer game if you have one
type of enemy it's easy to learn," said Mr Couzin.
"It would be fascinating to understand
whether the fish learned to play the game better over time."
The team is now looking at using 3D technology
to create a more photorealistic world in which to study fish behaviour.
"We're developing an automating tracking
system so we can track the position of their eyes and reconstruct a virtual
world of prey items, using conventional projectors," said Mr Couzin.
"It will be a fully 3D virtual world to
these organisms."
Cat
and mouse
Cat
owners can buy games which allow their pet to chase a virtual mouse
The study is not the first time researchers
have used gaming technology to research animal behaviour.
Earlier this year a team at the University of
Oulu in Finland used a virtual reality system to study cockroaches placed in a
simulated forest.
"Virtual reality's key benefit is having
conditions that enable naturalistic behaviour but, for example, are constrained
enough to record individual nerve cells while an animal is behaving," lead
researcher Mikko Vähäsöyrinki told the website Popular
Mechanics.
Games designed to be used by cats have even
been put on sale to make money from tablet computer owners.
They were released after a series of online
videos went viral showing felines swiping at the touchscreen devices
