Passive exposure to visual motion leads to short-term changes in the optomotor response of aging zebrafish

Numerous studies have shown that prior visual experiences play an important role in sensory processing and adapting behavior in a dynamic environment. A repeated and passive presentation of visual stimulus is one of the simplest procedures to manipulate acquired experiences. Using this approach, we aimed to investigate exposure-based visual learning of aging zebrafish and how cholinergic intervention is involved in exposure-induced changes. Our measurements included younger and older wild-type zebrafish and achesb55/+ mutants with decreased acetylcholinesterase activity. We examined both within-session and across-day changes in the zebrafish optomotor responses to repeated and passive exposure to visual motion. Our findings revealed short-term (within-session) changes in the magnitude of optomotor response (i.e., the amount of position shift by fish as a response to visual motion) rather than long-term and persistent effects across days. Moreover, the observed short-term changes were age- and genotype-dependent. Compared to the initial presentations of motion within a session, the magnitude of optomotor response to terminal presentations decreased in the older zebrafish. There was a similar robust decrease specific to achesb55/+ mutants. Taken together, these results point to short-term (within-session) alterations in the motion detection of adult zebrafish and suggest differential effects of neural aging and cholinergic system on the observed changes. These findings further provide important insights into adult zebrafish optomotor response to visual motion and contribute to understanding this reflexive behavior in the short- and long-term stimulation profiles.