Open field test for the assessment of anxiety-like behavior in Gnathonemus petersii fish

Petra Horka; Veronika Langova; Jan Hubeny; Karel Vales; Ivana Chrtkova; Jiri Horacek

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1280608

Open field test for the assessment of anxiety-like behavior in Gnathonemus petersii fish

Front Behav Neurosci. 2024 Jan 10:17:1280608. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1280608. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Petra Horka¹, Veronika Langova^{2

3}, Jan Hubeny², Karel Vales², Ivana Chrtkova^{2

4}, Jiri Horacek^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
² National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czechia.
³ Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
⁴ Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czechia.

Abstract

The open field test (OFT) is a basic and most widely used test for investigation in animal studies of the neurobiological basis of anxiety and screening for novel drug targets. Here, we present the results of an OFT for weakly electric fish Gnathonemus petersii. This study aimed to describe the behavioral response of G. petersii exposed to an OFT, simultaneously with an evaluation of electrical organ discharges (EOD), to determine whether any association between EOD and patterns of motor behavior in the OFT exists. Treatment of OFT activity and its temporal patterning was assessed for the whole 6-min trial as well as per-minute distributions of activity using a near-infrared camera and an EOD data acquisition system. Our results demonstrated that the time spent, distance moved, and time of activity were significantly higher in the periphery of the OFT arena. The zone preference pattern over the 6-min test session showed that G. petersii prefer the outer zone (83.61%) over the center of the arena (16.39%). The motor behavior of fish measured as distance moved, active time, and swim speed were correlated with the number of EODs; however, no relationship was found between EOD and acceleration.

Keywords: EOD; Gnathonemus petersii; anxiety; exploratory behavior; motor behavior; open field; thigmotaxis.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Czech Health Research Council (grant number AZV CR NU21 04–00405); and the Charles University Grant Agency (grant number GA UK 131 3820) and the Charles University research program Cooperatio-Neurosciences (grant number Cooperatio 207038 – Neurosciences, Charles University, Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague).