Development of social behavior in young zebrafish.
Adult zebrafish are robustly social animals whereas larva is not. We designed an assay to determine at what stage of development zebrafish begin to interact with and prefer other fish. One week old zebrafish do not show significant social preference whereas most 3 weeks old zebrafish strongly prefer to remain in a compartment where they can view conspecifics. However, for some individuals, the presence of conspecifics drives avoidance instead of attraction. Social preference is dependent on vision and requires viewing fish of a similar age/size. In addition, over the same 1-3 weeks period larval zebrafish increasingly tend to coordinate their movements, a simple form of social interaction. Finally, social preference and coupled interactions are differentially modified by an NMDAR antagonist and acute exposure to ethanol, both of which are known to alter social behavior in adult zebrafish.
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London London, UK.
Elena
E
Dreosti
Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown Lisbon, Portugal.
Gonçalo
G
Lopes
Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown Lisbon, Portugal.
Adam R
AR
Kampff
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London London, UK.
Stephen W
SW
Wilson
D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000494:pharmacology; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D012919:Social Behavior; D015027:Zebrafish
D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D000431:Ethanol; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate
NMDA receptors; ethanol; social behavior; visual behavior; zebrafish model system