神经生物学

Alcohol use during adolescence represents a major health concern given that this is a period in which the brain continues to undergo critical developmental changes. Much behavioral research has been conducted in animal models of alcohol exposure, and a vulnerable period in adolescence h ...

Neuropeptides play many important roles in cell–cell signaling and are involved in the control of anxiety, depression, pain, reward pathways, and many other processes that are relevant to psychiatric disorders. Mass spectrometry-based peptidomics techniques can identify the pr ...

Mechanisms underlying behavioral abnormalities of patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) disorder are still unknown. It is worth clarifying alterations in the brain of animal models for ADHD. The animals with neonatal treatment with 6-hydroxydopam ...

Application of transcriptomics approaches to accurately dissected anatomically defined brain regions and individual neuronal populations remains a central focus of current neurobiological investigations. A vast selection of methods and commercial products are curr ...

To date, no molecular biomarker exists for any psychiatric disorder. To identify phenotype-specific biomarkers and investigate the molecular underpinnings of anxiety pathophysiology, we interrogated the well-established mouse model of high (HAB), normal (NAB) and low (LAB) an ...

Ethanol exposure causes neurotoxicity, where neuroinflammation has been proposed to contribute to ethanol neurotoxicity. In addition to astroglia, microglia, as resident immune cells in the central nervous system, have been implicated as a key contributor to the neuroimmune and i ...

Adaptive decision making affords the animal the ability to respond quickly to changes in a dynamic environment: one in which attentional demands, cost or effort to procure the reward, and reward contingencies change frequently. The more flexible the organism is in adapting choice behavio ...

Self-injurious behaviour is highly prevalent in neurodevelopmental disorders. Interestingly, it is not restricted to any individual diagnostic group. Rather, it is exhibited in various forms across patient groups with distinct genetic defects and classifications of disord ...

Long-term treatment with haloperidol is associated with a number of extrapyramidal side effects. This limitation presents a marked therapeutic challenge. The present method (21 days administration of haloperidol, 5 mg/kg, i.p.) has been established to gain deeper insight into the mol ...

This report describes a behavioral test protocol for assessing anxiety in mice and rats in single or multiple sessions. The test is based on exposure of animals to an open-space elevated platform with suspended steep slopes attached on two opposite sides. In this test, all animals cross frequent ...

Excessive risk taking is a hallmark of various psychopathological disorders. We have developed a task that models such risky decision making in rats. In this task, rats are given choices between small, safe rewards and large rewards accompanied by a risk of punishment (footshock). The risk of pun ...

Qualitative studies are gaining their credibility after a period of being misinterpreted as “not being quantitative.” Qualitative method is a broad umbrella term for research methodologies that describe and explain individuals’ experiences, behaviors, interactions, and soc ...

Preclinical animal models have supported much of the recent rapid expansion of neuroscience research and have facilitated critical discoveries that undoubtedly benefit patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. This overview serves as an introduction for the followi ...

Depression is among the most prevalent forms of mental illness and a major cause of morbidity worldwide. Diagnosis of depression is mainly based on symptomatic criteria, and the heterogeneity of the disease suggests that multiple different biological mechanisms may underlie its etio ...

Animal models and preclinical tests have played large roles in the development of antidepressant drugs and are likely to continue to play important roles. In the present communication, the main animal models of depression have been described and reviewed. These models include the Flinde ...

The water maze task can be used to assess sensory motor and cognitive function in rodents. When properly employed, this task can behaviorally assess acquisition of a spatial search strategy, as well as working and reference memory. The following section uses research on age-related, cogniti ...

Traditional models of neuropsychiatric disorders consist of attempts to replicate the broad spectrum of behavioural and neurochemical sequelae that characterize a specific disorder. However, these disorders comprise complex constellations of symptoms, including emo ...

Alcoholism is a chronic treatment-resistant disorder typically presenting with recurrent/cyclic periods of abusive drinking, withdrawal, abstinence, and relapse. Various strategies that attempt to model these processes in animals have been developed to elucidate the beha ...

Developments in behavioral assessment, autonomic and/or baseline reactivity, psychopharmacology, and genetics, have contributed significantly to the assessment of performance-enhancing drugs in animal models. Particular classes of steroid hormones: androgenic st ...

Animals housed with running wheels and subjected to daily food restriction show paradoxical reductions in food intake and increases in running wheel activity. This phenomenon, known as activity-based anorexia (ABA), leads to marked reductions in body weight that can ultimately lead to ...