Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Modeling Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders in Zebrafish to Characterize the Impact of an Adverse Embryonic Environment on Adult Social Behavior
Published on: February 9, 2024
Behavioral Screening of Alcohol Effects and Individual Differences in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Heloysa Araujo-Silva1, Maria Elisa Leite-Ferreira1, Ana Carolina Luchiari1
1Department of Physiology and Behavior, Bioscience Center, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
Aim:
To better understand the individual differences that make up a population, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of different alcoholic concentrations on the behavioral profiles of zebrafish (Danio rerio).
Methods:
For this purpose, adult animals were separated into two behavioral profiles: bold and shy, according to the emergence order. Bold and shy fish were individually tested for exploration after exposure to the drug. Acute exposure treatments were alcohol 0.00, 0.10, 0.25 and 0.50%. The behavioral parameters evaluated were speed while moving, maximum speed, total distance traveled and distance from the bottom of the tank.
Results:
For the groups that did not receive alcohol, bold animals showed higher speed while moving. Shy 0.00% and shy 0.10% had the highest maximum speed compared with other concentrations and profiles. For the distance from the bottom tank, our results showed that the increase induced by the low acute dose (0.10%) was observed for both profiles.
Conclusions:
Our results corroborate with previous findings that alcohol affects the behavioral profiles of zebrafish differently, with bold animals apparently more resistant to these changes.
