Conspecific form promotes zebrafish social affiliative behaviors. (a) Schematic of the behavioral setup. (b) Schematic of the experimental protocol: a focal fish is placed in the center of the experimental tank for an acclimatization phase, having visual access to two screens placed in each side of the tank, where an image of an empty tank is presented (background image). After 10 min, the stimulus appears in the screens for 1 min, then the partitions are lifted, and fish is allowed to explore the tank for 6 min (preference phase). The time spent in each side of the tank (ROI) is taken as a preference for the respective stimulus. (c) Zebrafish is allowed to choose between a static image of a fish vs. a static image of a dot. % Cumulative time fish spent near static fish image (FISH, black dots) vs. dot (DOT, grey squares, n = 16). (d) Zebrafish is allowed to choose between a fish vs. a dot moving with biological motion. % Cumulative time fish spent near fish with biological motion (FISH BM, black dots) vs. dot with biological motion (DOT BM, grey squares, n = 11). (e) Zebrafish is allowed to choose between a fish vs. a dot moving with non-biological motion. % Cumulative time fish spent near fish with non-biological motion (FISH NBM, black dots) vs. dot with non-biological motion (DOT NBM, grey squares, n = 19). (f) Motion increases the stimuli exploration. Comparison of the exploratory score between the experiments above described (stimuli exploratory score = time spent in both stimuli over total time). (g) Zebrafish preference towards conspecific form increases with motion. Comparison of the preference score (time spent in the conspecific form over time spent near both stimuli), between the experiments above described. Error bars indicate SEM. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001.
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