Swimming in the maze: An overview of maze apparatuses and protocols to assess zebrafish behavior

Most preclinical behavioral assays use rodents as model animals, leaving room for species-specific biases that could be avoided by an expanded cross-species approach. In this context, zebrafish emerges as an alternative model organism to study neurobiological mechanisms of anxiety, preference, learning, and memory, as well as other phenotypes with relevance to neuropsychiatric disorders. In recent years, several zebrafish studies using different types of mazes have been published. However, the protocols and apparatuses' shapes and dimensions vary widely in the literature. This variation may puzzle researchers attempting to implement maze behavioral assays and challenges the reproducibility across institutions. This review aims to provide an overview of the behavioral paradigms assessed in different types of mazes in zebrafish reported in the last couple of decades. Also, this review aims to contribute to a better characterization of multi-behavioral assessment in zebrafish.

Automated summary

Zebrafish is emerging as an alternative model organism for studying neurobiological mechanisms of various behaviors, including anxiety, preference, learning, and memory, relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the wide variation in protocols and apparatus shapes and dimensions for maze studies in zebrafish literature poses challenges to reproducibility across institutions. This review aims to provide an overview of the behavioral paradigms assessed in different types of mazes in zebrafish and contribute to a better characterization of multi-behavioral assessment in zebrafish.