Early differences in epithalamic left–right asymmetry influence lateralization and personality of adult zebrafish

Lateralization of Cognitive Functions in Fish

“…Strong right-eye use was found to be associated with the decision to bite the newly appearing object. In this species, laterality was also found to influence exploratory behavior in a novel location (Dadda et al 2010b). When Panamanian bishops were confronted with novel objects, fishes from high-predation areas tended to view them with their left eye, while fishes from low-predation areas showed no eye preference (Brown et al 2004(Brown et al , 2007a.…”

“…In two other strains of zebrafish, Facchin et al (2009) found that artificial selection for right-eye use when looking at own mirror image significantly increased the frequency of reversed asymmetry in epithalamus while selection for left-eye use tended to decrease it, thus providing another indirect evidence of an association of epithalamic asymmetry and lateralization of cognitive functions. Recently Dadda et al (2010b) have tested this hypothesis directly by comparing fishes with left-or right-positioned parapineal in a series of laterality test. Although significant differences between fishes with opposite parapineal position were found in all laterality tests, it is clear from this study that early asymmetric parapineal positioning is not an all-or-nothing determinant of cerebral lateralization in zebrafish and that other genetic or environmental factors must be involved in the determination of this character.…”

“…For example, when emerging into a novel environment both L and R lines show similar turning biases but their latency to emerge (boldness) differed significantly. Along similar lines, Dadda et al (2010b) recorded the position of the parapineal organ with reference to the left or right habenula in young zebrafish using the foxD3:GFP marker. The habenulae and associated brain circuitry are known to play important roles in a number of behavioral functions including avoidance learning.…”

Mechanisms of Action and Persistent Neuroplasticity by Drugs of Abuse

“…The mammalian habenula is located at the posterior medial end of the dorsal thalamus next to the third ventricle. The habenula is phylogenetically highly conserved across vertebrates (Concha and Wilson, 2001;Aizawa et al, 2005;Dadda et al, 2010) and connects limbic forebrain nuclei with midbrain and hindbrain nuclei (Sutherland, 1982). The MHb receives major inputs from the septum through the stria medullaris and has a major output to the IPN through the fasciculus retroflexus, whereas the LHb makes a minor contribution to this projection (Herkenham and Nauta, 1979;Swanson and Cowan, 1979;Qin and Luo, 2009).…”

Learning to Fish with Genetics: A Primer on the Vertebrate ModelDanio rerio

“…Research in zebrafish has identified genes that control directional asymmetry of the brain. Expression of genes in the left forebrain ultimately leads to dorsal-ventral differences in innervation of the midbrain interpeduncular nucleus, which influences behavior (Halpern et al 2003;Barth et al 2005;Facchin et al 2009;Dadda et al 2010;Roussigne et al 2012) ( Figure B2) Figure B2 Left-right asymmetry in the dorsal forebrain. One left-right asymmetry in the zebrafish embryo is in the pineal complex, composed of a centrally located pineal organ and a parapineal typically positioned on its left.…”