Inhibitory control is an executive function that positively predicts performance in several cognitive tasks and has been considered typical of vertebrates with large and complex nervous systems such as primates. However, evidence is growing that some fish species have evolved complex cognitive abilities in spite of their relatively small brain size. We tested whether fish might also show enhanced inhibitory control by subjecting guppies, Poecilia reticulata, to the motor task used to test warm-blooded vertebrates. Guppies were trained to enter a horizontal opaque cylinder to reach a food reward; then, the cylinder was replaced by a transparent one, and subjects needed to inhibit the response to pass thought the transparency to reach the food. Guppies performed correctly in 58% trials, a performance fully comparable to that observed in most birds and mammals. In experiment 2, we tested guppies in a task with a different type of reward, a group of conspecifics. Guppies rapidly learned to detour a transparent barrier to reach the social reward with a performance close to that of experiment 1. Our study suggests that efficient inhibitory control is shown also by fish, and that its variation between-species is only partially explained by variation in brain size.

中文翻译：

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鱼在抑制运动控制任务中的表现像哺乳动物和鸟类。

抑制性控制是一种执行功能，可以积极预测几种认知任务的表现，并且被认为是具有大型和复杂神经系统的脊椎动物（例如灵长类动物）的典型特征。但是，越来越多的证据表明，尽管某些鱼类的大脑相对较小，但它们已经进化出了复杂的认知能力。我们通过使孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）接受用于测试温血脊椎动物的运动任务，来测试鱼类是否也可能显示出增强的抑制控制。孔雀鱼经过训练可以进入不透明的水平圆柱体，从而获得食物奖励；然后，将圆柱体换成透明的圆柱体，需要抑制反应的对象通过透明物体才能到达食物。孔雀鱼在58％的试验中表现正确，与大多数鸟类和哺乳动物所观察到的性能完全可比。在实验2中，我们在具有不同类型的奖励（一组特定目标）的任务中测试了孔雀鱼。孔雀鱼迅速学会绕开透明障碍，以达到与实验1相似的性能来获得社会奖励。我们的研究表明，鱼类也显示出有效的抑制控制，并且其物种间的差异仅通过鱼类的差异得以部分解释。脑大小。