Finding fish also has emotional states

A group of Portuguese researchers has shown for the first time that fish also have emotional states in response to environmental stimuli.

The results of this study have just been published in Scientific Reports.

Researchers have been monitoring sea ​​breams after allowing them to get used in favorable or unfavorable environments to stimulate them to create emotional states. They observed that seabass react differently to the same stimulus based on how they evaluate the situation.

Fish also have emotional states in response to environmental stimuli.

Researchers discovered the emotional responses of fish through their behavioral or evasive behavior assessment, by measuring cortisol, a hormone released during stress as well as assessing activated brain regions and It is known to be related to negative or positive emotional states.

According to research leader Rui Oliveira, this is the first time scientists have demonstrated that fish can have biological and neurological reactions in the central nervous system before emotional stimuli.

Previous studies have demonstrated that some animals such as primates and mammals have emotional states but it is unclear whether this state of them is unconscious or conscious.

Assessing the emotional state in animals is not easy because it involves behavioral changes, physiology, neurology and genetics. However, this new finding suggests that the ability to assess emotional stimulation may stem from a simpler neurological basis than previously thought that they are maintained through animal evolution.