Facciol Amanda, Tran Steven, Gerlai Robert
Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada.
Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA.
Bio Protoc. 2019 Jul 20;9(14):e3306. doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3306.
The light dark paradigm is a common behavioral test used to screen a variety of pharmacological agents, including anxiogenics and anxiolytics. Although most often used in rodents, the light dark task has recently been adapted for use in zebrafish. However, a number of inconsistent findings have been reported for this species. Some have found zebrafish to prefer black, while others report a preference for light. Careful analysis of light dark preference experiments using zebrafish reveals significant variation in testing tank design and test conditions, including lighting and substrate color. Additionally, in some experiments the designated dark side of the testing tank is completely covered, producing a "cave-like" environment which further confounds results. Lastly, authors commonly use the terms "light vs. dark" interchangeably with "white vs. black", when these are two separate factors that may influence preference: illumination level vs. background shade. To address these limitations, we designed testing tanks that differentiate illumination vs. background shade preference in zebrafish. This design allows for simple standardization of light dark testing apparatus in zebrafish, and facilitates more reliable comparison across studies.
明暗范式是一种常用的行为测试，用于筛选各种药物制剂，包括致焦虑剂和抗焦虑剂。虽然明暗任务最常用于啮齿动物，但最近已被改编用于斑马鱼。然而，关于该物种的一些研究结果并不一致。一些研究发现斑马鱼更喜欢黑色，而另一些研究则报告它们更喜欢明亮。对使用斑马鱼的明暗偏好实验进行仔细分析后发现，测试水箱设计和测试条件存在显著差异，包括光照和底物颜色。此外，在一些实验中，测试水箱指定的暗面被完全覆盖，形成了一个“洞穴状”环境，这进一步混淆了实验结果。最后，作者通常将“明亮与黑暗”与“白色与黑色”互换使用，而实际上这是两个可能影响偏好的独立因素：光照水平与背景色调。为了解决这些局限性，我们设计了测试水箱，以区分斑马鱼对光照与背景色调的偏好。这种设计使斑马鱼明暗测试设备能够简单地标准化，并有助于在不同研究之间进行更可靠的比较。
