Larval zebrafish display dynamic learning of aversive stimuli in a constant visual surrounding.

ABSTRACT: Balancing exploration and anti-predation are fundamental to the fitness and survival of all animal species from early life stages. How these basic survival instincts drive learning remains poorly understood. Here, using a light/dark preference paradigm with well-controlled luminance history and constant visual surrounding in larval zebrafish, we analyzed intra- and intertrial dynamics for two behavioral components, dark avoidance and center avoidance. We uncover that larval zebrafish display short-term learning of dark avoidance with initial sensitization followed by habituation; they also exhibit long-term learning that is sensitive to trial interval length. We further show that such stereotyped learning patterns is stimulus-specific, as they are not observed for center avoidance. Finally

SUBMITTER: Xu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8212779 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature