Professors Wisenden and Shastri co-publish research paper with MSUM students
MSUM Biosciences students Alex Seigel, Izzy DeVriendt and Madi Strand along with faculty mentors Brian Wisenden (Biosciences) and Ananda Shastri (Physics) have published their research in the international peer-reviewed journal Journal of Fish Biology https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.14965. The title of their research is Association of predation risk with a heterospecific vocalization by an anabantoid fish. In this experiment, Alex, Izzy and Madi demonstrated that honey gouramis (small tropical fish from SE Asia) have an excellent sense of hearing, they respond behaviorally to chemical alarm cues released from damaged epidermal tissue (simulating a predation event), and they can rapidly associate a novel auditory stimulus, in this case a playback of the vocalization of sparkling gouramis, with predation risk. One pairing of the unconditioned stimulus (alarm cues) with the conditioned stimulus (vocalization) was sufficient for learning to occur. These data indicate the potential for the anabantoidea (gouramis and their ilk) to communicate danger to others through vocal alarm calls.