Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavioral laterality predicts increased short-term avoidance memory but not stress-reactivity responses.
Anim Cogn
; 22(6): 1051-1061, 2019 Nov.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31342209
ABSTRACT
Once considered a uniquely human attribute, behavioral laterality has proven to be ubiquitous among non-human animals, and is associated with several neurophenotypes in rodents and fishes. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a versatile vertebrate model system widely used in translational neuropsychiatric research owing to their highly conserved genetic homology, well-characterized physiological responses, and extensive behavioral repertoire. Although spontaneous left- and right-biased responses, and associated behavioral domains (e.g., stress reactivity, aggression, and learning), have previously been observed in other teleost species, no information relating to whether spontaneous motor left-right-bias responses of zebrafish predicts other behavioral domains has been described. Thus, we aimed to investigate the existence and incidence of natural left-right bias in adult zebrafish, exploiting an unconditioned continuous free movement pattern (FMP) Y-maze task, and to explore the relationship of biasedness on performance within different behavioral domains. This included learning about threat cues in a Pavlovian fear conditioning test, and locomotion and anxiety-related behavior in the novel tank diving test. Although laterality did not change locomotion or anxiety-related behaviors, we found that biased animals displayed a different search strategy in the Y-maze, making them easily discernable from their unbiased counterparts, and increased learning associated to fear cues. In conclusion, we showed, for the first time, that zebrafish exhibit a natural manifestation of motor behavioral lateralization which can influence aversive learning responses.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Peixe-Zebra
/
Lateralidade Funcional
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Anim Cogn
Assunto da revista:
MEDICINA VETERINARIA
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Reino Unido