The Effects of Anxiolytic Medication on Memory Formation in Stress Induced Danio Rerio Specimens

Indianapolis, IN

Research with the study of zebrafish have lead to advancements in developmental biology, oncology, toxicology, studies dealing with reproductive capabilities, environmental science, neurobiology, stem cell research, genetics and many other areas as well. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) have become one of the top research organisms because of the great list of model characteristics that the species possess' and versatility in labs. Zebrafish, in the field of neuroscience, are being used to study how the brain encodes vision, hearing, movement, and even anxiety. By monitoring the neurons, activity within the zebrafish can be tracked and mapped out. In this experiment, zebrafish were used to see the effects of the anxiolytic drug, Bupropion (commercially known as Wellbutrin), on spatial memory formation. They were exposed to different doses of Bupropion, in a pilot study in order to gauge a safe dosage level that was later administered to the zebrafish. After initial priming of zebrafish, two groups were administered either a treatment route or a non-treatment route and were placed back in the T-maze environment in order to observe the effects of the medication on spatial memory formation from previous training. The Noldus software program tracked the movement of the specimens and recorded time spent in T-maze as well.