Chet Raymo, “A Fishy Tale”

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“A Fishy Tale”
by Chet Raymo

“As dumb as a goldfish. I mean, what could be dumber than swimming around in murky water all day – glassy eyed, slimy scaled, cold blooded – waiting for someone to sprinkle food flakes into the pond or tank. On a scale of smarts, goldfish would seem to fall somewhere between a limpet and a stone.

Conventional wisdom has it that fish have a memory span of about a second. But conventional wisdom, it turns out, is wrong. Goldfish are not the dummies they are made out to be. Scientists at Plymouth University in England have successfully trained goldfish to push a lever to get food, and – get this – to do it at the same hour every day. And the fish remember what they have been taught for months. Not exactly the science story of the year, but it does cause one to reflect on the nature of memory. What’s going on in those tiny ichthyic brains that lets the goldfish remember when and where to go for dinner?

Scientists now overwhelming believe that memories are stored as webs of connections between spider-shaped brain cells called neurons. Each neuron is connected through electrochemical connections to thousands of others. According to the current view, experience fine-tunes the connections, strengthening some, weakening others, creating a different “trace” of interconnected cells for each memory. As the goldfish were trained by the British scientists, a cobwebby tangle of neurons was established in their brains: “Over here, push the lever. It’s supper time.”

If there is something in the human body that can fairly be called a soul, it is surely that ineffable electrochemical web of connections that was partly bequeathed to us by our genes and partly records a lifetime of experience – including, of course, the cultural preferences we absorbed from our parents and teachers. Some folks are put off by the idea of an electrochemical soul, and prefer the older notion of a self that is independent of our physical bodies. As for myself, I love the notion of that effervescent cobweb of neuronal connections contrived of the ineluctable stuff of creation by 4 billion years of evolution. And I love too the way the new idea of soul binds us in a seamless web to all other creatures, goldfish included, and to the fabric of the universe itself.”

 

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/

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Speaking of goldfish…

 

by Time

 

“No longer can we boast about 12 seconds of coherent thought. The average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.

 

Researchers in Canada surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms (EEGs). Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (or about when the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds. “Heavy multi-screeners find it difficult to filter out irrelevant stimuli — they’re more easily distracted by multiple streams of media,” the report read. On the positive side, the report says our ability to multitask has drastically improved in the mobile age.

 

Microsoft theorized the changes were a result of the brain’s ability to adapt and change itself over time and a weaker attention span may be a side effect of evolving to a mobile Internet. The survey also confirmed generational differences for mobile use; for example, 77% of people aged 18 to 24 responded “yes” when asked, “When nothing is occupying my attention, the first thing I do is reach for my phone,” compared with only 10% of those over the age of 65. And now congratulate yourself for concentrating long enough to make it through this article.”

 

- http://time.com/