BackgroundBesides the amygdala, of which emotion roles have been intensively studied, the cerebellum has also been demonstrated to play a critical role in simple classical fear conditioning in both mammals and fishes. In the present study, we examined the effect of local administration of the anesthetic agent lidocaine into the cerebellum on fear-related, classical heart-rate conditioning in goldfish.MethodsThe effects of microinjection of the anesthetic agent lidocaine into the cerebellum on fear conditioning were investigated in goldfish. The fear conditioning paradigm was delayed classical conditioning with light as a conditioned stimulus and electric shock as an unconditioned stimulus; cardiac deceleration (bradycardia) was the conditioned response.ResultsInjecting lidocaine into the cerebellum had no effect on the base heart rate, an arousal/orienting response to the novel stimulus (i.e., the first presentation of light), or an unconditioned response to electric shock. However, lidocaine injection greatly impaired acquisition of conditioned bradycardia. Lidocaine injection 60 min before the start of the conditioning procedure showed no effect on acquisition of conditioned bradycardia, indicating that the effect of lidocaine was reversible.ConclusionsThe present results further confirm the idea that the cerebellum in teleost fish, as in mammals, is critically involved in classical fear conditioning.

A non-invasive technique to monitor cardiac activity in small fish, such as goldfish, zebrafish, and medaka, is needed. In the present study, we developed photocardiography (PCG), a non-invasive optical method, to record cardiac activity in small fish. The method monitors changes in near-infrared light transmission through the heart using a phototransistor located outside the body. With this technique, heartbeats in fish of various sizes (14-218 mm) were stably recorded. PCG was applied to monitor the heartbeat during fear-related classical heart rate conditioning in goldfish wherein an electrical shock was used as an unconditioned stimulus. The heartbeats were continuously monitored, even when the beat coincided with the electrical shock, showing that PCG is robust even in an electrically noisy environment. This technique is particularly useful when monitoring the heartbeats of fish of small size or in the presence of ambient electrical noise, conditions in which the use of conventional electrocardiography (ECG) is difficult.

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