NEW research from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh confirms that fish are anything but dim-witted creatures whose left fins don't know what the right ones are up to.

A study shows that fish not only use different sides of their brains for different tasks – just like humans – but also process information so efficiently they can do it without even looking.

Although it is well established that fish use different sides of the brain for specific tasks – a process called lateralisation – the new study in Current Biology is the first to show how fish use other, non-visual, senses to preferentially process information. The researchers observed that blind Mexican cave fish, which have no eyes, show a clear response to swim to the left when they approach an unfamiliar object. The cave fish use special sensors on the right hand side of their bodies, called lateral line sense organs, to guide them. Information from the right lateral line is transferred to the left side of the brain where it is processed.

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