Frontiers in Neural Circuits (Mar 2015)

Positive taxis and sustained responsiveness to water motions in larval zebrafish

  • Antonia H. Groneberg,
  • Antonia H. Groneberg,
  • Ulrich eHerget,
  • Soojin eRyu,
  • Rodrigo eDe Marco

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2015.00009
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) have become favored subjects for studying the neural bases of behavior. Here, we report a highly stereotyped response of zebrafish larvae to hydrodynamic stimuli. It involves positive taxis, motion damping and sustained responsiveness to flows derived from local, non-stressful water motions. The response depends on the lateral line and has a high sensitivity to stimulus frequency and strength, sensory background and rearing conditions - also encompassing increased threshold levels of response to parallel input. The results show that zebrafish larvae can use near-field detection to locate sources of minute water motions, and offer a unique handle for analyses of hydrodynamic sensing, sensory responsiveness and arousal with accurate control of stimulus properties.

Keywords