Thanks JL! A very important question, probably deserves detailed discussion in a post. My sense is that animal models of mental disorders have severe limitations and extrapolating from them is quite problematic. Psychiatric disorders are quite complex and have this distinctive experiential dimension. We can create animal models that mimi…
Thanks JL! A very important question, probably deserves detailed discussion in a post. My sense is that animal models of mental disorders have severe limitations and extrapolating from them is quite problematic. Psychiatric disorders are quite complex and have this distinctive experiential dimension. We can create animal models that mimic that certain aspects of the psychiatric disorders -- a certain behavioral phenotype, or a certain sort of process such as chronic stress or social defeat -- but it's difficult to jump from that to the pathophysiology or treatment of the disorder in humans. Nonetheless, there are some other ways in which animal models could be helpful. A rodent's preference for being in open arms over closed arms in elevated plus maze and how this preference is modified by a pharmaceutical tells us *something* about exploratory behavior, it's neural associations, and the behavioral effects of a pharmaceutical, and we can begin to ask questions like what corresponding behaviors and behavioral effects might look like in humans, and what their therapeutic value might be, but we should resist the urge to assume that this is telling us anything meaningful about anxiety disorders per se.
Thanks, Awais! I agree with you. I look forward to your future post on this topic. Hope you also discuss more valid research methods/models that neuroscientists can consider when studying the biology of psychiatric disorders. More power!
Thanks JL! A very important question, probably deserves detailed discussion in a post. My sense is that animal models of mental disorders have severe limitations and extrapolating from them is quite problematic. Psychiatric disorders are quite complex and have this distinctive experiential dimension. We can create animal models that mimic that certain aspects of the psychiatric disorders -- a certain behavioral phenotype, or a certain sort of process such as chronic stress or social defeat -- but it's difficult to jump from that to the pathophysiology or treatment of the disorder in humans. Nonetheless, there are some other ways in which animal models could be helpful. A rodent's preference for being in open arms over closed arms in elevated plus maze and how this preference is modified by a pharmaceutical tells us *something* about exploratory behavior, it's neural associations, and the behavioral effects of a pharmaceutical, and we can begin to ask questions like what corresponding behaviors and behavioral effects might look like in humans, and what their therapeutic value might be, but we should resist the urge to assume that this is telling us anything meaningful about anxiety disorders per se.
Thanks, Awais! I agree with you. I look forward to your future post on this topic. Hope you also discuss more valid research methods/models that neuroscientists can consider when studying the biology of psychiatric disorders. More power!