Preferences for achromatic horizontal, vertical, and square patterns in zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Faculty Advisor
Date
2017
Keywords
zebrafish, pattern preference, fish behaviour, visual stimuli
Abstract (summary)
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is gaining popularity as a laboratory organism and is used to model many human diseases. Many behavioural measures of locomotion and cognition have been developed that involve the processing of visual stimuli. However, the innate preference for vertical and horizontal stripes in zebrafish is unknown. We tested the preference of adult zebrafish for three achromatic patterns (vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, and squares) at three different size conditions (1, 5, and 10 mm). Each animal was tested once in a rectangular arena, which had a different pattern of the same size condition on the walls of either half of the arena. We show that zebrafish have differential preferences for patterned stimuli at each of the three size conditions. These results suggest that zebrafish have naïve preferences that should be carefully considered when testing zebrafish in paradigms using visual stimuli.
Publication Information
Rimstad et al. (2017). Preferences for achromatic horizontal, vertical, and square patterns in zebrafish (Danio re- rio). PeerJ 5:e3748. doi:10.7717/peerj.3748
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
English
Rights
Attribution (CC BY)
