From today’s NY Times (and with good timing with the on-going Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago)–this piece by Sean Carroll.
My thesis advisor, Bernard Agranoff, became famous studying the goldfish brain. Now I know why.
Here’s the money quote:
A series of studies has recently revealed that reef fish are surprisingly adaptable. Freshly caught wild fish quickly learn new tasks and can learn to discriminate among colors, patterns and shapes, including those they have never encountered. These studies suggest that learning and interpreting new stimuli play important roles in the lives of reef fish.
Discoverers and Discoveries 