Using a robotic fish to investigate individual differences in social responsiveness in the guppy.

ABSTRACT: Responding towards the actions of others is one of the most important behavioural traits whenever animals of the same species interact. Mutual influences among interacting individuals may modulate the social responsiveness seen and thus make it often difficult to study the level and individual variation in responsiveness. Here, open-loop biomimetic robots that provide standardized, non-interactive social cues can be a useful tool. These robots are not affected by the live animal's actions but are assumed to still represent valuable and biologically relevant social cues. As this assumption is crucial for the use of biomimetic robots in behavioural studies, we hypothesized (i) that meaningful social interactions can be assumed if live animals maintain individual differences in responsiveness

SUBMITTER: Bierbach D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124066 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature