Sex differences influence human and animal behavioral and pharmacological responses. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a powerful, popular model system in neuroscience and drug screening. However, the impact of zebrafish sex differences on their behavior and drug responses remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluate baseline anxiety-like behavior in adult male and female zebrafish, and its changes following an acute 30-min exposure to 800-μM scopolamine, a common psychoactive anticholinergic drug. Overall, we report high baseline anxiety-like behavior and more individual variability in locomotion in female zebrafish, as well as distinct, sex-specific (anxiolytic-like in females and anxiogenic-like in males) effects of scopolamine. Collectively, these findings reinforce the growing importance of zebrafish models for studying how both individual and sex differences shape behavioral and pharmacological responses.

Translated title of the contributionПоловые различия влияют на продуктивность рыбок данио в серии тестов на тревожность и в ответ на лечение острым скополамином
Original languageEnglish
Article number135993
Number of pages10
JournalNeuroscience Letters
Volume759
Early online date2021
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Aug 2021

    Research areas

  • temperament, scopolamine, zebrafish, Sex differences, anxiety-like behavior, locomotion, Locomotion, Scopolamine, Anxiety-like behavior, Zebrafish, Temperament, DEPRESSION, TEMPERAMENT, ACETYLCHOLINE-RELEASE PROFILE, BOLDNESS, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES, MODELS, BEHAVIORAL SYNDROMES, STRESS, AGGRESSION, GENDER-DIFFERENCES

    Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience(all)

ID: 77731991