NemoTrainer: Automated Conditioning for Stimulus-Directed Navigation and Decision Making in Free-Swimming Zebrafish.

ABSTRACT: Current methods for associative conditioning in animals involve human intervention that is labor intensive, stressful to animals, and introduces experimenter bias in the data. Here, we describe a simple apparatus and a flexible, microcontroller-based conditioning paradigm that minimizes human intervention. Our methodology exploits directed movement towards a target that depends on spatial working memory, including processing of sensory inputs, motivational drive, and attentional mechanisms. Within a stimulus-driven conditioning paradigm designed to train zebrafish, we present a localized pulse of light via LEDs and/or sounds via an underwater transducer. A webcam placed below a glass tank records fish-swimming behavior. For classical conditioning, animals simply associate a sound or light

SUBMITTER: Singh BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9817937 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature