MINI REVIEW article
Front. Mol. Neurosci.
Sec. Methods and Model Organisms
This article is part of the Research TopicZebrafish as a model organism for neuroscience researchView all articles
Habituation learning: insights from zebrafish larvae
Provisionally accepted
Laura Köcher1,2*
Dominik Straumann1,2- 1University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
- 2UniversitatsSpital Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Habituation is evolutionary conserved and often considered as one of the simplest forms of learning, however, the underlying mechanisms are highly complex. Extensive research has been conducted over the last few decades to understand the mechanisms of habituation in vertebrate and invertebrate species. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a crucial model for exploring the underlying mechanisms of habituation. Due to the possibility for genetic manipulations and non-invasive visualization of neuronal activity across the entire larval brain and genetically encoded fluorescent sensors allowing the detection of different neurotransmitters linked to behavioral processes, larval zebrafish provides a great vertebrate model to investigate habituation learning. In our review, we summarize recent insights into habituation learning as well as habituation deficits under neuropathological conditions gained from zebrafish larvae.
Keywords: Zebrafish, Neuromodulation, Behavior, Learning, neuronal circuits, neurological & neurodevelopmental diseases, habituation, sensory filtering
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Köcher and Straumann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laura Köcher, laura.koecher@uzh.ch
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