Measuring Larval Zebrafish Behavior: Locomotion, Thigmotaxis, and Startle

Zebrafish Behavior and locomotion

Larval zebrafish are genetically tractable, easy to manipulate, and can be generated in large numbers. Their small size also makes them ideal for high-throughput screens for genes or pharmacological compounds that affect behavior. Thus, larval zebrafish are an ideal model system to investigate locomotion and locomotion-based behaviors such as thigmotaxis and startle. In this chapter, I present methods to measure locomotion, thigmotaxis, and response to a startle stimulus in larval zebrafish.f