title: Maturation of shoaling behavior is accompanied by changes in the dopaminergic and serotoninergic systems in zebrafish.
abstract: The zebrafish has been one of the preferred vertebrate model organisms of developmental biology, and is becoming an important research tool for behavioral neuroscience and behavior genetics. A prominent feature of zebrafish is their strong shoaling tendency. Most recently, the first study investigating the development of shoaling in zebrafish demonstrated that a few days after hatching zebrafish do not shoal, but that shoaling tendency gradually increases during development. The current study investigates this phenomenon using the nearest neighbor distance, a measure most frequently employed for the quantification of shoal cohesion in fish. We demonstrate that shoal cohesion increases with age, while thigmotaxis, "wall hugging," does not show a consistent age-dependent change. The mechanisms underlying the maturation of shoaling are unknown. HPLC analysis of whole brain extracts finds the concentration of dopamine, DOPAC, serotonin, and 5-HIAA normalized to total brain protein weight to increase with age. Although the behavioral and neurochemical results are only correlative at this point, they may open a new avenue into the investigation of the mechanisms and development of social behavior in zebrafish.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell & Systems Biology, Neuroscience, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buske
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gerlai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006897:Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism*; D012919:Social Behavior; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012701:Serotonin; D006897:Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid; D004298:Dopamine