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Behavioral and Pharmacological Aspects of Anxiety in the Light/Dark Preference Test

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Zebrafish Protocols for Neurobehavioral Research

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 66))

Abstract

Some teleost fish present scototaxis, a tendency to search for dark places and avoid brightly lit spaces. In zebrafish, it has been proposed that scototaxis (preference for dark environments) is a model of anxiety. In this chapter, we discuss some evidence regarding that proposal, and present a standardized protocol for assessing the effect of drugs on scototaxis and associated variables using a two-compartment, light–dark preference tank. This task represents a sensitive and reliable test of anxiolytic and anxiogenic drugs, being able to discriminate sedative or psychomotor effects, as well as panicolytic vs. anxiolytic effects.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by CAPES/Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, Zebrafish Neuroscience Research Consortium, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Juliana Araujo, Caio Maximino & Anderson Manoel Herculano

  2. Laboratory of Behavioral Research, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

    Thiago Marques de Brito & Silvio Morato

  3. Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Annanda Waneza Batista da Silva

  4. Laboratório de Neuroendocrinologia, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA, Brazil

    Karen Renata Matos Oliveira & Evander de Jesus Oliveira Batista

  5. Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Amauri Gouveia Jr.

Authors
  1. Juliana Araujo
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  2. Caio Maximino
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  3. Thiago Marques de Brito
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  4. Annanda Waneza Batista da Silva
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  5. Karen Renata Matos Oliveira
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  6. Evander de Jesus Oliveira Batista
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  7. Silvio Morato
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  8. Anderson Manoel Herculano
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  9. Amauri Gouveia Jr.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caio Maximino .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Program, Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University, Tulane Ave. 1430, New Orleans, 70112, Louisiana, USA

    Allan V. Kalueff

  2. , Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University, Tulane Avenue 1430, New Orleans, 70112, Louisiana, USA

    Adam Michael Stewart

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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Araujo, J. et al. (2012). Behavioral and Pharmacological Aspects of Anxiety in the Light/Dark Preference Test. In: Kalueff, A., Stewart, A. (eds) Zebrafish Protocols for Neurobehavioral Research. Neuromethods, vol 66. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-597-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-597-8_14

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-596-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-597-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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