Abstract
Zebrafish have great potential to contribute to our understanding of behavioral genetics and thus to contribute to our understanding of the etiology of psychiatric disease. However, progress is dependent upon the rate at which behavioral assays addressing complex behavioral phenotypes are designed, reported and validated. Here we critically review existing behavioral assays with particular focus on the use of adult zebrafish to explore executive processes and phenotypes associated with human psychiatric disease. We outline the case for using zebrafish as models to study impulse control and attention, discussing the validity of applying extant rodent assays to zebrafish and evidence for the conservation of relevant neural circuits.
Highlights
Gaining a better understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of psychiatric disease is currently a priority area of research (Campbell, 2010)
Neural circuits of executive function niche-specific selection pressures leading to evolution of comparable executive processes. This suggestion raises two questions regarding the use of zebrafish to explore molecular and cellular processes contributing to psychiatric disease: first, do fish show comparable behaviors? Second, if fish can perform executive tasks, have different regions or systems within their brains evolved to perform the tasks; or alternatively, have simple circuits evolved, albeit with topographical differences and different degrees of sophistication, to perform the same tasks, i.e., are the behavioral processes analogous or homologous? If the behaviors in fish, birds, and mammals share neurochemical pathways and show similar connectivity, it would suggest a common root and that the processes are homologous
We demonstrated that zebrafish show similar rates of basal anticipatory responding on the task as rodents, and that a low dose (0.025 mg/Kg i.p.) of amphetamine significantly reduced anticipatory responding during long ITI probe trials whereas a saline injection had no effect (Parker et al, 2012b)
Summary
Gaining a better understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of psychiatric disease is currently a priority area of research (Campbell, 2010). This suggestion raises two questions regarding the use of zebrafish to explore molecular and cellular processes contributing to psychiatric disease: first, do fish show comparable behaviors?
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