Protocol for measuring visual preferences of freely swimming Xenopus laevis tadpoles

Xenopus tadpoles display innate visually guided behaviors which are thought to promote survival by guiding them toward sources of food and away from predators. Experimentally, studying these behaviors can provide insight into the formation and function of the neural circuits which underlie them. Here, we present a protocol for measuring visual preferences of freely swimming tadpoles. We describe steps to create the visual stimuli, carry out the experiments, and analyze the resulting data. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hunt et al.¹ and Bruno et al.².