Zebrafish neurobehavioral assays for drug addiction research

Abstract

Adult and larval zebrafish have been employed for studies of drugs of addiction in numerous excellent studies. This chapter outlines zebrafish neurobehavioral assays such as unconditioned (acute) locomotor responses, sensitization test, tolerance test, conditioned place preference, and self-administration for drugs including ethanol, cocaine, morphine, nicotine, D-amphetamine, heroin/THC and the opiate salvinorin A. Methodological details of assays including environmental parameters, design of testing chambers, treatment regimens and analysis are provided. Test for adult and larval zebrafish are addressed in separate sections. Established robust neurobehavioral assays in combination with powerful molecular genetic tools manifest strong prospects for discovery of underlying mechanism of drug use-behavior and development of pharmacotherapeutics for treatment of drug dependence using zebrafish.