Using zebrafish (Danio rerio) to assess short-term memory: the habituation and the homebase tests

Environmental novelty is one of the most potent stressors in animals and is often used in behavioral neuroscience to study affective and cognitive impairments. However, in the process of studying an unfamiliar environment in experimental animals, there is a decrease in stress due to habituation (adaptation, habituation). In various behavioral tests in zebrafish, this manifests as swimming in areas that pose a potential danger to them: the upper part of the aquarium in the novel tank test and the central part in the open field test. When building an effective survival strategy, it is important to navigate in an unfamiliar environment from a home base — the safest area that serves as a starting point in exploring a novel arena. Both discussed here, habitation and establishing the home base, are important for assessing cognitive behavioral traits in zebrafish related to short-term spatial working memory.