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Low Repeatability of Aversive Learning in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

View ORCID ProfileDominic Mason, Susanne Zajitschek, Hamza Anwer, Rose E O’Dea, Daniel Hesselson, Shinichi Nakagawa
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385930
Dominic Mason
1Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 NSW, Australia
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  • For correspondence: dpmason91@gmail.com
Susanne Zajitschek
1Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 NSW, Australia
2School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, United Kingdom
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Hamza Anwer
1Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 NSW, Australia
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Rose E O’Dea
1Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 NSW, Australia
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Daniel Hesselson
3Diabetes and Metabolism Division, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, NSW, Australia
4St Vincent’s Clinical School, UNSW, Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Shinichi Nakagawa
1Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052 NSW, Australia
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Abstract

Aversive learning – avoiding certain situations based on negative experiences – can profoundly increase fitness in animal species. The extent to which this cognitive mechanism could evolve depends upon individual differences in aversive learning being stable through time, and heritable across generations, yet no published study has quantified the stability of individual differences in aversive learning using the repeatability statistic, R (also known as the intra-class correlation). We assessed the repeatability of aversive learning by conditioning approximately 100 zebrafish (Danio rerio) to avoid a colour cue associated with a mild electric shock. Across eight different colour conditions zebrafish did not show consistent individual differences in aversive learning (R = 0.04). Within conditions, when zebrafish were twice conditioned to the same colour, blue conditioning was more repeatable than green conditioning (R = 0.15 and R = 0.02). In contrast to the low repeatability estimates for aversive learning, zebrafish showed moderately consistent individual differences in colour preference during the baseline period (i.e. prior to aversive conditioning; R ~ 0.45). Overall, aversive learning responses of zebrafish were weak and variable (difference in time spent near the aversive cue <6 seconds per minute), but individual differences in learning ability did not explain substantial variability. We speculate that either the effect of aversive learning was too weak to quantify consistent individual differences, or directional selection might have eroded additive genetic variance. Finally, we discuss how confounded repeatability assays and publication bias could have inflated average estimates of repeatability in animal behaviour publications.

Summary Statement Zebrafish exhibit low repeatability (intra-class correlation) in an aversive learning assay possibly due to past selection pressure exhausting genetic variance in this learning trait.

Footnotes

  • Ethics All procedures approved by the Garvan Animal Ethics Committee (ARA 18_18) as noted in Methods.

  • Data accessibility All data and code can be accessed at the Open Science Framework:(https://osf.io/t95v3/).

  • Competing interests. No competing interests.

  • Funding. This research was funded through an Australian Research Council Discovery grant (DP180100818) awarded to S. Nakagawa

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted November 17, 2020.
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Low Repeatability of Aversive Learning in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Dominic Mason, Susanne Zajitschek, Hamza Anwer, Rose E O’Dea, Daniel Hesselson, Shinichi Nakagawa
bioRxiv 2020.11.16.385930; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385930
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Low Repeatability of Aversive Learning in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Dominic Mason, Susanne Zajitschek, Hamza Anwer, Rose E O’Dea, Daniel Hesselson, Shinichi Nakagawa
bioRxiv 2020.11.16.385930; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385930

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