title: Effect of acute ethanol administration on zebrafish tail-beat motion.
abstract: Zebrafish is becoming a species of choice in neurobiological and behavioral studies of alcohol-related disorders. In these efforts, the activity of adult zebrafish is typically quantified using indirect activity measures that are either scored manually or identified automatically from the fish trajectory. The analysis of such activity measures has produced important insight into the effect of acute ethanol exposure on individual and social behavior of this vertebrate species. Here, we leverage a recently developed tracking algorithm that reconstructs fish body shape to investigate the effect of acute ethanol administration on zebrafish tail-beat motion in terms of amplitude and frequency. Our results demonstrate a significant effect of ethanol on the tail-beat amplitude as well as the tail-beat frequency, both of which were found to robustly decrease for high ethanol concentrations. Such a direct measurement of zebrafish motor functions is in agreement with evidence based on indirect activity measures, offering a complementary perspective in behavioral screening.
authors: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA.
authors: Tiziana
authors: T
authors: Bartolini
authors: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA.
authors: Violet
authors: V
authors: Mwaffo
authors: Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIITD), New Delhi 110020, India.
authors: Sachit
authors: S
authors: Butail
authors: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA. Electronic address: mporfiri@nyu.edu.
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Porfiri
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000187:drug effects*; D013550:Swimming; D013623:Tail / Q000187:drug effects; D015027:Zebrafish
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Ethanol; Locomotion; Tail-beat amplitude; Tail-beat frequency; Zebrafish