Modulation of nociceptive-like behavior in zebrafish (Danio rerio) by environmental stressors

• Autor(a) principal: Maximino,Caio
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Psychology & Neuroscience (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1983-32882011000100017
• topic: nociception; defensive behavior; fear; anxiety; stress; zebrafish

Zebrafish have been demonstrated to react consistently to noxious chemical stimuli and present reliable phenotypes of stress, fear, and anxiety. In this article, we describe the modulation of nociceptive-like responses of zebrafish to fear-, stress-, and anxiety-eliciting situations. Animals were exposed to an alarm substance, confinement stress, or a novel environment before being injected with 1% acetic acid in the tail. The alarm substance and confinement stress reduced the display of erratic movements and tail-beating behavior elicited by acetic acid. The novelty of the environment, in contrast, increased the frequency of tail-beating behavior. The results suggest that descending modulatory control of nociception exists in zebrafish, with apparent fear- and stress-induced analgesia and anxiety-induced hyperalgesia.