After surveying current research practices and model development strategies, the author examines animal models of eating disorders from both scientific and ethical points of view. He exposes logical inconsistencies in the study of animals as models for human behavior, and concludes that such research has little to contribute. The foreword is by noted chimpanzee-researcher Jane Goodall. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Mice are used as model organisms across a wide range of fields in science today—but it is far from obvious how studying a mouse in a maze can help us understand human problems like alcoholism or anxiety. How do scientists convince funders, fellow scientists, the general public, and even themselves that animal experiments are a good way of producing knowledge about the genetics of human behavior? In Model Behavior, Nicole C. Nelson takes us inside an animal behavior genetics laboratory to examine how scientists create and manage the foundational knowledge of their field. Behavior genetics is a particularly challenging field for making a clear-cut case that mouse experiments work, because researchers believe that both the phenomena they are studying and the animal models they are using are complex. These assumptions of complexity change the nature of what laboratory work produces. Whereas historical and ethnographic studies traditionally portray the laboratory as a place where scientists control, simplify, and stabilize nature in the service of producing durable facts, the laboratory that emerges from Nelson’s extensive interviews and fieldwork is a place where stable findings are always just out of reach. The ongoing work of managing precarious experimental systems means that researchers learn as much—if not more—about the impact of the environment on behavior as they do about genetics. Model Behavior offers a compelling portrait of life in a twenty-first-century laboratory, where partial, provisional answers to complex scientific questions are increasingly the norm.
Reviews the way in which animal models are used as an aid in understanding human behavior. Covers conceptual and historical issues, evolutionary perspectives, and neurobiological problems. Compares psychological processes in animals and humans. Includes examples of ways in which animal models are utilized to solve specific problems in human psychology. Examines how to go about making interspecific comparisons and some of the problems that may arise.
Animal Models for the Study of Human Disease identifies important animal models and assesses the advantages and disadvantages of each model for the study of human disease. The first section addresses how to locate resources, animal alternatives, animal ethics and related issues, much needed information for researchers across the biological sciences and biomedicine.The next sections of the work offers models for disease-oriented topics, including cardiac and pulmonary diseases, aging, infectious diseases, obesity, diabetes, neurological diseases, joint diseases, visual disorders, cancer, hypertension, genetic diseases, and diseases of abuse. - Organized by disease orientation for ease of searchability - Provides information on locating resources, animal alternatives and animal ethics - Covers a broad range of animal models used in research for human disease
This volume intends to demonstrate that theories based on animal studies of brain, behavior, and cognition are indeed providing new insights and directions for research on human function. It is also hoped that this book will promote a dialogue between animal and human researchers that will lead to increased understanding of the complex issues involved in modeling human behavior. /// Part I covers background material against which the subsequent chapters need to be viewed. Part II provides a sampling of the kinds of strategies that animal investigators have used to obtain information that may help alleviate psychiatric and emotional disorders. Part III focuses on animal studies of developmental processes in humans. Part IV focuses on a specific aspect of the perception-cognition continuum: memory processes. Part V discusses aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).
In March, 1974, an International Symposium was held at the Harmonie Club in New York to discuss a highly pertinent problem in today's research: the "Rele vance of the Animal Psychopathological Model to the Human." This meeting was sponsored by the Kittay Foundation, which brought together an outstanding group of scientists involved in widely different fields of research. This volume, it is hoped, will convey the tone of lively and cordial exchange between inter nationally renowned investigators, including Dr. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt from Germany, Dr. Robert A. Hinde from England, Dr. Edward F. Domino from Michigan, and Dr. Pierre Pichot from France, Chairman of the Steering Committee. In his welcoming address, Mr. Sol Kittay reminded us that man has achieved remarkable control over his environment but not over himself, and he suggested that we should reexamine our ancestral origins, and search in animal behavior for clues to the understanding of normal and abnormal behavior in man.
Modeling Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Laboratory Animals serves as a guide for students and basic investigators in the fields of behavioral sciences, psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and other professionals interested in the use of animal models in preclinical research related to human neuropsychiatric disorders. The text focuses on the rationale and theory of using animal behavior, both pathological and normal, as a tool for understanding the neural underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders. Chapters contain discussions on both classical and modern views on the validation of animal models for neuropsychiatric disorders, also discussing the utility of endophenotypes in modeling neuropsychiatric disease. Subsequent chapters deal with four specific classes of disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Final sections discuss the future for the development, validation, and use of animal models in basic and preclinical research. - Focuses on the rationale and theory of using animal behavior, both pathological and normal, as a tool for understanding the neural underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders - Serves as a guide for students and basic investigators in the fields of behavioral sciences, psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and other professionals - Discusses specific classes of disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
Scientific experiments using animals have contributed significantly to the improvement of human health. Animal experiments were crucial to the conquest of polio, for example, and they will undoubtedly be one of the keystones in AIDS research. However, some persons believe that the cost to the animals is often high. Authored by a committee of experts from various fields, this book discusses the benefits that have resulted from animal research, the scope of animal research today, the concerns of advocates of animal welfare, and the prospects for finding alternatives to animal use. The authors conclude with specific recommendations for more consistent government action.
Originally published in 1986, in this work Professor Keehn assesses the contributions of experimental psychology and ethology to psychiatric theory and practice at the time. He discusses the status of animals in psychopathology, and describes a number of animal clinical pictures, covering both abnormal movements and convulsions, and spontaneous behavioural disorders. He also includes animal models of such psychiatric illnesses as neurosis, psychosis, drug addiction and disorders of childhood, and examines the nature of mental illness and the status of psychiatric diagnosis. The book includes an evaluation of the ethics of experimental research with animals and a summary of humane experimental procedures. Animal Models for Psychiatry will be of special interest to psychiatrists, clinical and physiological psychologists, behavioural pharmacologists, and to veterinarians.
