Associative and nonassociative learning in adult zebrafish

Abstract Adult zebrafish are gaining traction as a model organism in the study of learning and memory. Over the past 25 years, both associative and nonassociative learning have been unequivocally demonstrated using a variety of stimuli such as colored lights, novel tanks, access to conspecifics, and electric shocks. Recently, several studies have exploited key advantages of zebrafish such as their amenability to genetic manipulation and high-throughput analysis, yielding novel insights into behavior and the workings of the vertebrate brain. As a visually oriented, diurnal, and highly social species with the same general organization of the central nervous system as mammals, zebrafish are an ideal organism to complement work in rodents and further our understanding of the neural and molecular basis of learning and memory.