Zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) are rapidly gaining popularity in translational neuroscience and behavioral research. Physiological similarity to mammals, ease of genetic manipulations, sensitivity to pharmacological and genetic factors, robust behavior, low cost, and potential for high-throughput screening contribute to the growing utility of zebrafish models in this field. Understanding zebrafish behavioral phenotypes provides important insights into neural pathways, physiological biomarkers, and genetic underpinnings of normal and pathological brain function. Novel zebrafish paradigms continue to appear with an encouraging pace, thus necessitating a consistent terminology and improved understanding of the behavioral repertoire. What can zebrafish ‘ do ’, and how does their altered brain function translate into behavioral actions? To help address these questions, we have developed a detailed catalog of zebrafish behaviors (Zebrafish Behavior Catalog, ZBC) that covers both larval and adult models. Representing a beginning of creating a more comprehensive ethogram of zebrafish behavior, this effort will improve interpretation of published findings, foster cross-species behavioral modeling, and encourage new groups to apply zebrafish neurobehavioral paradigms in their research. In addition, this glossary creates a framework for developing a zebrafish neurobehavioral ontology, ultimately to become part of a unified animal neurobehavioral ontology, which collectively will contribute to better integration of biological data within and across species.

Self-grooming is an evolutionarily conserved complex innate behaviour that has a role in hygiene maintenance and other physiological functions. Self-grooming is the most frequently occurring awake behaviour in laboratory rodents. Self-grooming is an important phenotype to study in translational neuroscience, as it may allow the modelling of human diseases that have symptoms similar to, and/or share pathogenetic mechanisms with, aberrant grooming in rodents. Analysing animal self-grooming also has a broader value in the study of neurobiology underlying complex repetitive behaviours, which may be disrupted in certain neurological diseases. In this Review, we discuss the neurobiology of grooming, including its underlying circuitry, genetic mechanisms and pharmacological modulation. We also highlight studies of rodent self-grooming behaviour in models of neuropsychiatric disorders that suggest that it is valuable asset for clinical and translational neuroscience research, including the identification of neural circuits that control complex patterned behaviours. These findings suggest that the study of rodent self-grooming has multiple implications for translational neuroscience, which may extend beyond understanding the self-grooming behaviour itself.