Sight of conspecifics as reward in associative learning in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Abstract

Large amount of genetic information has been accumulated for zebrafish. Learning and memory have also been investigated with zebrafish but the number of learning paradigms is limited. Here we present a simple associative task and investigate a novel reinforcer. We show that visual access to a group of conspecifics has rewarding properties and that this reinforcer can support associative learning in zebrafish. We discuss the advantages of this rewarding stimulus and make recommendations for its use in high throughput behavioral screens.