Fishing for answers

Issue 19 | Autumn/Winter 2007

Professor Ishwar Parhar looking at fish inside his laboratory.

In Australia they are known as the cane toad of the waterways, but scientists at Monash University's Malaysia campus say tilapia could help unlock some secrets of the human brain.

Mention tilapia, most people would think either of food or fishing.

At Monash University, tilapia are used by one of the world's leading neuroscientists to understand how the human brain works, answering questions like how do we get happy? or how do we get sad?

Professor Ishwar Parhar, who heads the Brain Research Institute at Monash University's Malaysian campus, said there were several unique features of the cichlid family of fish - which the Tilapia belong to - that make it a very suitable candidate for such a study.

The female fish can be used to study maternal behaviour, while the male fish - which are very combative - can be used to study aggression.

"These fish show a strong physical reaction in response to aggression and this can be very useful for studies of the brain and how it functions in such instances," said Professor Parhar.

He said understanding how this process works could go a long way in understanding how the human brain works.

Another fish used by Professor Ishwar is the zebra fish, which is being used to understand gender differences in the brain.

"These fish have the ability to change their sex, which makes them ideal candidates for studies into the brains of different genders," he said.

"We have been using fish for over 20 years to understand how the brain works and the research being carried out in this area may significantly contribute to our understanding of human emotions," said Professor Ishwar.

"There is still much to be learnt about the human brain and this research may shed some light on how human emotions function at the cells level," he added.

A species of cichlid, the tilapia niloticas, has been identified by the Malaysian government as a prime target for aquaculture under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

The research involving tilapia is one of several frontier research projects being carried out at the institute by Professor Ishwar and his team.

Among the focus areas of research at the institute are neuroinformatics; nanotechnology for regenerative medicine/drug delivery; brain imaging; behavioural neurogenetics/mental disorders; genomics/proteomics and molecular morphology.