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Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations

Recognition memory is the capacity to recognize previously encountered objects, events or places. This ability is crucial for many fitness-related activities, and it appears very early in the development of several species. In the laboratory, recognition memory is most often investigated using the n...

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Autores principales: Bruzzone, Matteo, Gatto, Elia, Lucon Xiccato, Tyrone, Dalla Valle, Luisa, Fontana, Camilla Maria, Meneghetti, Giacomo, Bisazza, Angelo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7192156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32368416
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8890
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author Bruzzone, Matteo
Gatto, Elia
Lucon Xiccato, Tyrone
Dalla Valle, Luisa
Fontana, Camilla Maria
Meneghetti, Giacomo
Bisazza, Angelo
author_facet Bruzzone, Matteo
Gatto, Elia
Lucon Xiccato, Tyrone
Dalla Valle, Luisa
Fontana, Camilla Maria
Meneghetti, Giacomo
Bisazza, Angelo
author_sort Bruzzone, Matteo
collection PubMed
description Recognition memory is the capacity to recognize previously encountered objects, events or places. This ability is crucial for many fitness-related activities, and it appears very early in the development of several species. In the laboratory, recognition memory is most often investigated using the novel object recognition test (NORt), which exploits the tendency of most vertebrates to explore novel objects over familiar ones. Despite that the use of larval zebrafish is rapidly increasing in research on brain, cognition and neuropathologies, it is unknown whether larvae possess recognition memory and whether the NORt can be used to assess it. Here, we tested a NOR procedure in zebrafish larvae of 7-, 14- and 21-days post-fertilization (dpf) to investigate when recognition memory first appears during ontogeny. Overall, we found that larvae explored a novel stimulus longer than a familiar one. This response was fully significant only for 14-dpf larvae. A control experiment evidenced that larvae become neophobic at 21-dpf, which may explain the poor performance at this age. The preference for the novel stimulus was also affected by the type of stimulus, being significant with tri-dimensional objects varying in shape and bi-dimensional geometrical figures but not with objects differing in colour. Further analyses suggest that lack of effect for objects with different colours was due to spontaneous preference for one colour. This study highlights the presence of recognition memory in zebrafish larvae but also revealed non-cognitive factors that may hinder the application of NORt paradigms in the early developmental stages of zebrafish.
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spelling pubmed-71921562020-05-04 Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations Bruzzone, Matteo Gatto, Elia Lucon Xiccato, Tyrone Dalla Valle, Luisa Fontana, Camilla Maria Meneghetti, Giacomo Bisazza, Angelo PeerJ Animal Behavior Recognition memory is the capacity to recognize previously encountered objects, events or places. This ability is crucial for many fitness-related activities, and it appears very early in the development of several species. In the laboratory, recognition memory is most often investigated using the novel object recognition test (NORt), which exploits the tendency of most vertebrates to explore novel objects over familiar ones. Despite that the use of larval zebrafish is rapidly increasing in research on brain, cognition and neuropathologies, it is unknown whether larvae possess recognition memory and whether the NORt can be used to assess it. Here, we tested a NOR procedure in zebrafish larvae of 7-, 14- and 21-days post-fertilization (dpf) to investigate when recognition memory first appears during ontogeny. Overall, we found that larvae explored a novel stimulus longer than a familiar one. This response was fully significant only for 14-dpf larvae. A control experiment evidenced that larvae become neophobic at 21-dpf, which may explain the poor performance at this age. The preference for the novel stimulus was also affected by the type of stimulus, being significant with tri-dimensional objects varying in shape and bi-dimensional geometrical figures but not with objects differing in colour. Further analyses suggest that lack of effect for objects with different colours was due to spontaneous preference for one colour. This study highlights the presence of recognition memory in zebrafish larvae but also revealed non-cognitive factors that may hinder the application of NORt paradigms in the early developmental stages of zebrafish. PeerJ Inc. 2020-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7192156/ /pubmed/32368416 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8890 Text en ©2020 Bruzzone et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Bruzzone, Matteo
Gatto, Elia
Lucon Xiccato, Tyrone
Dalla Valle, Luisa
Fontana, Camilla Maria
Meneghetti, Giacomo
Bisazza, Angelo
Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title_full Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title_fullStr Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title_full_unstemmed Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title_short Measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
title_sort measuring recognition memory in zebrafish larvae: issues and limitations
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7192156/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32368416
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8890
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