Development of Social Behavior in Young Zebrafish

Overview

Journal Front Neural Circuits

Date 2015 Sep 9

PMID 26347614

Citations 122

Authors

Elena Dreosti

Goncalo Lopes

Adam R Kampff

Stephen W Wilson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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.

Citing Articles

Conserved multisensory integration of social cues in the thalamus.

Anneser L, Kappel J iScience. 2025; 28(1):111678.

PMID: 39868040 PMC: 11761278. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111678.

Valproate-Induced Model of Autism in Adult Zebrafish: A Systematic Review.

Camussi D, Marchese M, Nicoletti F, Santorelli F, Ogi A Cells. 2025; 14(2).

PMID: 39851536 PMC: 11764007. DOI: 10.3390/cells14020109.

Proto-arithmetic abilities in zebrafish ().

Potrich D, Montel L, Stancher G, Baratti G, Vallortigara G, Sovrano V Heliyon. 2024; 10(23):e40585.

PMID: 39669161 PMC: 11636080. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e40585.

The Zebrafish Cerebellar Neural Circuits Are Involved in Orienting Behavior.

Hosaka S, Hosokawa M, Hibi M, Shimizu T eNeuro. 2024; 11(10).

PMID: 39406478 PMC: 11521796. DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0141-24.2024.

Probabilistic modeling reveals coordinated social interaction states and their multisensory bases.

Stednitz S, Lesak A, Fecker A, Painter P, Washbourne P, Mazzucato L bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39149367 PMC: 11326195. DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.02.606104.

References

Sison M, Gerlai R . Behavioral performance altering effects of MK-801 in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Behav Brain Res. 2011; 220(2):331-7. PMC: 3072452. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.02.019. View

Senju A, Maeda M, Kikuchi Y, Hasegawa T, Tojo Y, Osanai H . Absence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder. Biol Lett. 2007; 3(6):706-8. PMC: 2391210. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0337. View

Mooney R . Auditory-vocal mirroring in songbirds. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2014; 369(1644):20130179. PMC: 4006181. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0179. View

Sears L, Finn P, Steinmetz J . Abnormal classical eye-blink conditioning in autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 1994; 24(6):737-51. DOI: 10.1007/BF02172283. View

Lopes G, Bonacchi N, Frazao J, Neto J, Atallah B, Soares S . Bonsai: an event-based framework for processing and controlling data streams. Front Neuroinform. 2015; 9:7. PMC: 4389726. DOI: 10.3389/fninf.2015.00007. View

Hinz F, Aizenberg M, Tushev G, Schuman E . Protein synthesis-dependent associative long-term memory in larval zebrafish. J Neurosci. 2013; 33(39):15382-7. PMC: 6618464. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0560-13.2013. View

Banerjee S, Riordan M, Bhat M . Genetic aspects of autism spectrum disorders: insights from animal models. Front Cell Neurosci. 2014; 8:58. PMC: 3932417. DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2014.00058. View

Dirian L, Galant S, Coolen M, Chen W, Bedu S, Houart C . Spatial regionalization and heterochrony in the formation of adult pallial neural stem cells. Dev Cell. 2014; 30(2):123-36. DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2014.05.012. View

Jones L, Norton W . Using zebrafish to uncover the genetic and neural basis of aggression, a frequent comorbid symptom of psychiatric disorders. Behav Brain Res. 2014; 276:171-80. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.055. View

10.

Ladu F, Butail S, Macri S, Porfiri M . Sociality modulates the effects of ethanol in zebra fish. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2014; 38(7):2096-104. DOI: 10.1111/acer.12432. View

11.

Maaswinkel H, Zhu L, Weng W . Assessing social engagement in heterogeneous groups of zebrafish: a new paradigm for autism-like behavioral responses. PLoS One. 2013; 8(10):e75955. PMC: 3792997. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075955. View

12.

Green J, Collins C, Kyzar E, Pham M, Roth A, Gaikwad S . Automated high-throughput neurophenotyping of zebrafish social behavior. J Neurosci Methods. 2012; 210(2):266-71. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2012.07.017. View

13.

Pietri T, Roman A, Guyon N, Romano S, Washbourne P, Moens C . The first mecp2-null zebrafish model shows altered motor behaviors. Front Neural Circuits. 2013; 7:118. PMC: 3712905. DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00118. View

14.

Scerbina T, Chatterjee D, Gerlai R . Dopamine receptor antagonism disrupts social preference in zebrafish: a strain comparison study. Amino Acids. 2012; 43(5):2059-72. PMC: 3425734. DOI: 10.1007/s00726-012-1284-0. View

15.

Sebanz N, Bekkering H, Knoblich G . Joint action: bodies and minds moving together. Trends Cogn Sci. 2006; 10(2):70-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2005.12.009. View

16.

Oliveira R . Mind the fish: zebrafish as a model in cognitive social neuroscience. Front Neural Circuits. 2013; 7:131. PMC: 3737460. DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2013.00131. View

17.

Engeszer R, Ryan M, Parichy D . Learned social preference in zebrafish. Curr Biol. 2004; 14(10):881-4. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2004.04.042. View

18.

Orger M, Kampff A, Severi K, Bollmann J, Engert F . Control of visually guided behavior by distinct populations of spinal projection neurons. Nat Neurosci. 2008; 11(3):327-33. PMC: 2894808. DOI: 10.1038/nn2048. View

19.

Xiao N, Perrotta S, Quinn P, Wang Z, Sun Y, Lee K . On the facilitative effects of face motion on face recognition and its development. Front Psychol. 2014; 5:633. PMC: 4067594. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00633. View

20.

Miller N, Gerlai R . From schooling to shoaling: patterns of collective motion in zebrafish (Danio rerio). PLoS One. 2012; 7(11):e48865. PMC: 3498229. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048865. View