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Updated: May 11, 2026

Studying Neurobehavioral Effects of Environmental Pollutants on Zebrafish Larvae
Published on: February 5, 2020
Ingestión de microplásticos afecta el procesamiento lateralizado de estímulos depredadores en peces
Georgiana Andrei1, Alessandro Colombani1, Elia Gatto1,2
1Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Abstract:
Microplastic ingestion affects fish brains at the molecular level, but its impact on cognitive phenotype remains unclear. We fed zebrafish (Danio rerio) food containing either polyethylene or poly(butylene-adipate-co-terephthalate) microplastics for 20 days and assessed their lateralisation, which reflects how information processing is split between brain hemispheres. No changes appeared in rotational or mirror tests, but lateralisation was disrupted in the detour test when facing a predator model. These results suggest microplastic ingestion can impair specific cognitive traits at the phenotypic level.

