Meeting Abstract
Behavioral plasticity is one of the characteristics that allow organisms to adapt to their surroundings. Such individual variation in behavioral traits is considered adaptive due to the heterogeneity of habitats. However, this view can be limiting when one is interested in more than just individual differences in response to a changing environment. Analysis of behavior is a powerful, noninvasive technique that can be used to allow researchers to expose organisms to a variety of stimuli while eliciting quantifiable responses. However, in order to accurately predict responses to stimuli, assays need baseline information that play a key role in creating species-wide averages. This study assessed the use of basic behavioral responses to generate a species-specific baseline that will be used in future studies. Using goldfish, this study reevaluated the value of scototaxis as anxiety-like behavior and assessed gregarious-like behaviors in an open field task. Experimental tank usage was also assessed as a baseline measure of overall activity. All the behavioral criteria were analyzed using Ethovision for the percent time moving during the trial, experimental arena location, and overall swimming velocity. Preliminary results suggest that these behavioral parameters are quick and efficient measures to generate species-specific basic behavioral baselines that can be later utilized to assess deviation from a norm in a variety of experimental situations.
