Neuroscience
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Review
Functional interactions within striatal microcircuit in animal models of Huntington's disease.
Mutant huntingtin (mhtt) causes loss of synaptic plasticity and selective degeneration of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), a core pathological feature of Huntington's disease (HD). However, projecting neurons become dysfunctional in the very early stages, long before death and this dysfunctional state may contribute to disease. Interneurons appear to be more resistant to the effects of mhtt and play important roles in supporting the activity of projecting neurons. ⋯ Electrophysiological studies provide crucial information on neuronal dysfunction and circuit changes that underlie or precede symptoms. Here we review recent papers in which HD models have been used to study various aspects of neuronal physiology of corticostriatal pathway. We will also discuss advantages and limitations of rodent models compared to primate models and current challenges of therapies aimed at rescuing striatal function in HD.
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Feeding is a fundamental process for basic survival and is influenced by genetics and environmental stressors. Recent advances in our understanding of behavioral genetics have provided a profound insight on several components regulating eating patterns. ⋯ The animal model is an essential tool in the investigation of eating behaviors and their pathological forms, yet development of an appropriate animal model for eating disorders still remains challenging due to our limited knowledge and some of the more ambiguous clinical diagnostic measures. Therefore, this review will serve to focus on the basic clinical features of eating disorders and the current advances in animal models of eating disorders.
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Research involving animal models of drug addiction can be viewed as a sort of reverse psychiatry. Contrary to clinicians who seek to treat addicted people to become and remain abstinent, researchers seek to make drug-naïve animals addicted to a drug with known addictive properties in humans. The goals of this research are to better understand the neuroscience of drug addiction and, ultimately, to translate this knowledge into effective treatments for people with addiction. ⋯ In fact, it appears that resilience to cocaine addiction is the norm in rats. As in human cocaine users, only few individual rats would be vulnerable. This conclusion has several important implications for future research on the neuroscience of cocaine addiction and on preclinical medication development.
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During the last 30 years there have been many attempts to develop animal models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), in the hope that they may provide a route for furthering our understanding and treatment of this disorder. The present review provides the reader with an overview of the currently active animal models of OCD, their strengths and limitations, so that the reader can use the review as a guide for establishing new animal models of OCD, evaluating existing animal models and choosing among them according to one's needs. ⋯ On the basis of this evaluation we discuss the usefulness of the different models for screening drugs for anti-compulsive activity, detecting new targets for high frequency stimulation, studying the neural mechanisms of OCD and unraveling the role of gonadal hormones. We then describe potential new treatment strategies that emerge from the convergence of data obtained in different models on the one hand, and how different models can be used to model different subtypes or dimensions of OCD, on the other hand.