Negative impacts of social isolation on behavior and neuronal functions are recovered after short-term social reintroduction in zebrafish.

Recently, social isolation measures were crucial to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the lack of social interactions affected the population mental health and may have long-term consequences on behavior and brain functions. Here, we evaluated the behavioral, physiological, and molecular effects of a social isolation (SI) in adult zebrafish, and whether the animals recover such changes after their reintroduction to the social environment.

Ketamine acutely impairs memory consolidation and repeated exposure promotes stereotyped behavior without changing anxiety- and aggression-like parameters in adult zebrafish.

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic in human and veterinary clinic, as well as an abuse drug that acts on several neurotransmitter systems. The use of alternative animal models, such as zebrafish, is emerging to study the effects of drugs on neurobehavioral responses. Here, we evaluated the effects of ketamine on memory consolidation (acute protocol), as well as on anxiety-, aggressive-like behavior, and whole-body cortisol levels in adult zebrafish after a repeated exposure.

Taurine prevents MK-801-induced shoal dispersion and altered cortisol responses in zebrafish.

Schizophrenia is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by a shortened lifespan and significant impaired social and vocational functioning. Schizophrenic patients can present hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunctions and cortisol dysregulation, which play an important role on the etiology onset, exacerbation, and relapsing of symptoms. Based on its intrinsic neuroprotective properties, taurine is considered a promising substance with beneficial role on various brain disorders, including schizophrenia.

Predictable chronic stress modulates behavioral and neuroendocrine phenotypes of zebrafish: Influence of two homotypic stressors on stress-mediated responses.

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been considered a suitable model organism to assess the evolutionarily conserved bases of behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress. Depending on the nature of the stressor, prolonged stress may elicit habituation or evoke long-term changes in the central nervous systems (CNS) often associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Conspecific alarm substance (CAS) and net chasing (NC) constitute chemical and physical stressors, respectively, which cause aversive behaviors and physiological changes in fishes.

Naloxone prolongs abdominal constriction writhing-like behavior in a zebrafish-based pain model.

The ability to detect noxious stimuli is essential to survival. However, pathological pain is maladaptive and severely debilitating. Endogenous and exogenous opioids modulate pain responses via opioid receptors, reducing pain sensibility.

Taurine prevents memory consolidation deficits in a novel alcohol-induced blackout model in zebrafish.

Ethanol is one of the most consumed substance worldwide that impairs learning and memory processes, resulting in amnesia or blackout. Due to the genetic conservation, rich behavioral repertoire, and high pharmacological tractability, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a powerful model organism for assessing preventive strategies against the noxious effects of ethanol in vertebrates. Here, we used an inhibitory avoidance apparatus to investigate the potential preventive effects of taurine in a novel ethanol-induced amnesia model in zebrafish.