Zebrafish T-Maze Learning

The zebrafish T-maze learning task assesses spatial and associative learning by training fish to navigate a T-shaped aquatic maze to locate a reward (food, social conspecifics, or a preferred environment) in one arm based on visual, chromatic, or spatial cues. The apparatus consists of a start arm leading to a choice point where the fish must select between left and right goal arms, each distinguished by unique visual patterns or colors on the walls and floor. Spatial learning in zebrafish engages the dorsolateral telencephalon, the functional homologue of the mammalian hippocampus, along with the lateral pallium and cerebellum, with cholinergic and glutamatergic signaling critical for the formation and retrieval of place-reward associations.

Fish undergo repeated training sessions (typically 10-20 trials per day across 3-7 days) with the reward consistently located in one designated arm. The primary dependent variables include the percentage of correct arm choices per session, latency to reach the choice point, latency to enter the goal arm, and the learning curve slope across sessions. Reversal learning, where the reward switches to the previously unrewarded arm, provides a measure of cognitive flexibility and perseverative error rate. Probe trials without reward test the strength of the learned association by measuring choice accuracy and time spent in the previously rewarded arm.

ConductMaze tracks the fish through the maze using overhead camera, automatically detecting choice-point arrival, arm entry, and reward-zone occupancy. The system scores correct versus incorrect choices in real time, computes per-session learning indices, and generates cumulative learning curves with error bars across training days. Built-in reversal learning protocols automate the reward-switch schedule and flag perseverative error patterns.