A Behavioral Test Battery to Assess Larval and Adult Zebrafish After Developmental Neurotoxic Exposure

Behavioral test batteries are valuable methods which allow outcomes with varying characteristics and neurobiological bases to be assessed and compared in the same animals. This allows investigators to construct a profile of impairments produced by a pharmacological or toxicological challenge, and to propose mechanisms for further study based on those findings. This profile is valuable in the assessment of potentially hazardous substances, including environmental toxicants, drugs of abuse, and other neuropharmacologically active agents. Behavioral tests and batteries have been developed for a number of species, including a relatively recent and growing body of work with the zebrafish, Danio rerio. This chapter discusses the current zebrafish behavioral battery used in our laboratory, and some of the main factors that drove its development. The principal tests include a motility assay for larval fish (6 days post fertilization, dpf), and a battery intended for adolescent (2–3 months) and adult fish (5+ months), which assay sensorimotor, affective, and cognitive-like functions in these fish. Significant progress has been made in the areas of zebrafish neurobehavioral analysis, although further studies, refinements, and task development efforts will be needed to strengthen this approach in the future.