Comportamento social e memória em Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) a partir da utilização de estímulos virtuais

Abstract

The Zebrafish fish (Danio rerio) has been conquering space as a research animal in several areas of knowledge, due to several aspects such as: anatomical-physiological simplicity and ease of acquisition, maintenance and experimentation. The objective of this study was to investigate whether an animation of 5 zebrafishes, identical to the experimental fish, is capable of eliciting social behavior, that is, approximation and permanence of the fish in relation to the stimulus presented. To this end, a sample of 22 animals carried out an experiment in 3 stages: I) habituation; II) experiment; and III) memory. The dependent variable analyzed was the temporal percentage of permanence of the animal in the zones close to the presentation of the virtual visual stimulus. The results suggest that the zebrafish is attracted by the animation of fish of the same species, remaining for a short period close to the place of presentation of the stimulus after its presentation. These findings corroborate other findings in the literature and provide subsidies for a future researchs on behavioral aspects associated with memory and group behavior.