Protocol for controlling visual experience during zebrafish development and modulation of motor behavior

Sensory experience instructs neurodevelopment and refines sensory processing. Here, we describe a minimally invasive protocol to immobilize zebrafish during early development to control visual experience. We describe how to prepare larvae for embedding in agarose at two separate timepoints in development. Then we describe how to build a behavior rig and use software to track zebrafish behaviors. Finally, we detail analyzing behavioral data to validate the protocol and determine outcomes of sensory dependent plasticity. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hageter et al. (2023).1

Automated summary

This article describes a minimally invasive protocol for immobilizing zebrafish during early development to control visual experience. The authors provide detailed instructions on preparing and embedding larvae, building a behavior rig, and analyzing behavioral data.