In case the headline didn’t give it away, today’s edition of Things We Learned About Our Bodies isn’t actually about our bodies. Or is it? More on that in a sec.
The New York Times reported this morning on research by the department of biological and environmental sciences at Troy University in Alabama that fish can, and do, become depressed.
According to Professor Julian Pittman, fish are actually very obvious about their mental state. When a zebrafish is placed in a fresh tank, their natural inclination is to swim near the top, exploring their new environs.
But if the fish then transitions to the lower half of the tank, they know that the fish is depressed. How depressed is a function of the time spent at the bottom versus at the top. This is called the “novel tank test,” and, as I hinted at above, it has some interesting implications for understanding our own depressive selves.
Just like humans, the fish become withdrawn; they lose interest in almost the same things (food, entertainment, the world around them) in the same way as we do. Said Pittman:
“The neurochemistry is so similar that it’s scary. There is a lot we don’t give fish credit for.”
All this has led to fish being viewed as possible candidates for testing antidepressants. If they can work on fish, maybe they can help humans beat their own depression and get back to swimming at the top of the fish tank.
A few other things we learned about our bodies today:
- North Americans are consuming so many opioids the rest of the world is running out.
- Men under 50 are 1.5 times more likely to die within 3 years when given a blood transfusion from a pregnant woman. Yikes.
- As if you needed another reason to hold your kid out of football, young athletes who get concussions are more likely to develop multiple sclerosis later in life.
- Hey Google, maybe don’t list calorie counts in Google Maps, what do you think?
- Guys who became infertile as a result of cancer treatment may soon be able to get a procedure allowing them to become their former, virile selves.
- In today’s “no, duh” news, sugar is bad for you. No, like, really fucking bad for you.
Jeff Gross
Jeff Gross is MEL’s senior editor for social media and content marketing. His daily ICYMI column, which chronicles all things meta on the site, is the quickest way to catch up on MEL, and the funniest thing you’ll read all day. Follow him on Twitter.
