Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavioral laterality predicts increased short-term avoidance memory but not stress-reactivity responses

Abstract

6Once considered a uniquely human attribute, behavioral laterality has proven to be 3 7 ubiquitous among non human animals, being frequently associated with different 3 8 neurophenotypes in rodents and fish species. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are a versatile vertebrate 3 9 model system that has been widely used in translational neuropsychiatric research due their 4 0 highly conserved genetic homology, well characterized physiological and extensive behavioral 4 1 repertoire. Although the spontaneous left-and right-bias responses and associated behavioral 4 2 domains (e.g. stress reactivity, aggression and learning) have previously been observed in other 4 3 teleost species, no information regarding how spontaneous motor left-right bias responses of 4 4 zebrafish predicts other behavioral domains has been described. Thus, we aimed to investigate 4 5 the existence and incidence of natural left-right bias of adult zebrafish in the Y-maze test and 4 6 explore any relationship of biasedness on the performance of different behavioral domains. This 4 7 included learning about threat-cues in the fear conditioning test and locomotion and anxiety-4 8related behavior in the novel tank diving test. In conclusion, we showed for the first time that 4 9 handling in a single day (see Fig. 1). During the pair-housing period, animals had shared

Low Repeatability of Aversive Learning in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

“…We used only 2 minutes out of the 5-minute probe time since we determined in our observations (see Supplementary Figure 5 & 6) a clear decrease in learning response. This probe length is similar to other studies Brock et al (2017) use a 2-minute probe and Fontana et al, (2019) use a 1 minute probe.…”

“…We used an avoidance conditioning method to quantify aversive learning in a simple, automated assay (Brock et al, 2017; Fontana et al, 2019). We ran all assays using four Zantiks AD units (Zantiks Ltd., Cambridge, UK; see Supplementary Figures 1 and 2).…”

Moderate early life stress improves adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) working memory but does not affect social and anxiety‐like responses

“…Recently, we also observed that zebrafish presented decreased alternations in turn‐direction when exposed to moderate alcohol during early nervous system developmental (Cleal & Parker, 2018). Although the FMP Y‐maze responses can be influenced by novelty‐seeking (Fontana, Cleal, Clay, et al, 2019), we observed here that ELS did not change exploratory responses of animals at the novel tank diving task. Thus, it seems likely, that increased alternations in turn‐direction and a coincidental decrease in repetitions are indicative that the ELS animals may have an improvement in learning and memory adaptive flexibility, thus suggesting increased “resilience” as a result of the ELS exposure.…”

“…The FMP Y‐maze is distinct from a previously used “Y‐maze” protocols, in which animals would explore three spatially distinct arms and the analysis would be based (typically over a short period of time, such as 5 min, or a discrete number of “choices”—“some refs”) on the spatial location of the animals’ choices. Critically, the FMP Y‐maze is conceptually more comparable to a series of discrete choices as would be the case in a series of trials in a T‐maze, or in a two‐choice guessing task (Cleal & Parker, 2018; Fontana, Cleal, Clay, & Parker, 2019; Fontana, Cleal, & Parker, 2019). We have demonstrated that alternations in turn‐direction are reduced following administration of memory‐impairing drugs (e.g., MK801 and scopolamine), suggesting that alternations are indicative of working memory (Cleal et al., 2020).…”

Dopaminergic Modulation of Working Memory and Cognitive Flexibility in a Zebrafish Model of Aging-Related Cognitive Decline

“…The FMP Y-maze has been developed to assess cognition in a range or organisms, including zebrafish, flies, rodents and a virtual task for assessing humans (submitted-Cleal, et al, 2020 Ϯ ) (Cleal & Parker, 2018;Fontana, Cleal, Clay, et al, 2019). Specific exploration patterns have been identified in a range of organisms using serial analysis of left and right turns.…”