Abstract
Stress plays a key role in pathogenesis of anxiety and depression. Animal models of these disorders are widely used in behavioral neuroscience to explore stress-evoked brain abnormalities, screen anxiolytic/antidepressant drugs and establish behavioral phenotypes of gene-targeted or transgenic animals. Here we discuss the current situation with these experimental models, and critically evaluate the state of the art in this field. Noting a deficit of fresh ideas and especially new paradigms for animal anxiety and depression models, we review existing challenges and outline important directions for further research in this field.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-18 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Behavioural Brain Research |
Volume | 179 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Apr 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Experimental (animal) models and tests
- Exploration
- Obsessive-compulsive behaviors
- Paradigm shifts
- Stereotypies
- Stress