Zebrafish models to study drug abuse-related phenotypes.

Mounting evidence implicates the zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a promising model species for reward and addiction research. Modeling drug abuse-related behavior in both adult and larval zebrafish produced a wealth of clinically translatable data, also demonstrating their sensitivity to various drugs of abuse and the ability to develop tolerance. Several studies have also applied withdrawal paradigms to model the adverse effects of drug abuse in zebrafish. In this review, we summarize recent findings of a wide spectrum of zebrafish drug abuse-related behavioral and physiological phenotypes, discuss the existing challenges, and outline potential future directions of research in this field.

Acute stress disrupts performance of zebrafish in the cued and spatial memory tests: the utility of fish models to study stress-memory interplay.

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a promising model organism for affective or cognitive neuroscience research, and may be useful to study the interplay between memory and anxiety-related states. To assess the effects of acute psychological stress on spatial and cued memory, adult zebrafish were trained in an aquatic plus-maze for 14 days using food bait as a reward. Two ecologically relevant stressors (alarm pheromone or Indian leaf fish exposure) were applied to acutely stress zebrafish immediately prior to the final (testing) trial. Overall, acute single inescapable stress markedly impaired spatial and cued memory in zebrafish plus-maze test, reducing the number of correct arm entries and time spent in the target arm. This observation parallels rodent and clinical literature on memory-impairing effects of acute stress, strongly supporting the utility of zebrafish in neurobehavioral research.