Variation in Emotion and Cognition Among Fishes created by Victoria A. Braithwaite • Felicity Huntingford • Ruud van den Bos

Increasing public concern for the welfare of fish species that human
beings use and exploit has highlighted the need for better understanding of the
cognitive status of fish and of their ability to experience negative emotions such as
pain and fear. Moreover, studying emotion and cognition in fish species broadens
our scientific understanding of how emotion and cognition are represented in the
central nervous system and what kind of role they play in the organization of
behavior. For instance, on a macro neuro-architecture level the brains of fish species
look dramatically different from those of mammals, while such a dramatic difference does not (always) occur at the level of emotion- and cognition-related
behavior. Here, therefore, we discuss the evidence of emotion and cognition in fish
species related to underlying neuro-architecture and the role that emotion and
cognition play in the organization of behavior. To do so we use a framework
encompassing a number of steps allowing a systematic approach to these issues.
Emotion and cognition confer on human and non-human animals the capacity to
compliment and/or override immediate reflexes to stimuli and so allow a large
degree of flexibility in behavior. Systematic research on behavior that in mammals
is indicative of emotion and cognition has been conducted in only a few fish species.
The data thus far indicate that in these species brain-behavior relationships are not
fundamentally different from those observed in mammals. Furthermore, data from other studies show evidence that behavior patterns related to emotion and cognition vary between fish species as well within fish species, related to sex and life history stage for example. From a welfare perspective, knowledge of such variability will potentially help us to design optimal living conditions for fish species kept by humans.