Clinchy Michael, Schulkin Jay, Zanette Liana Y, Sheriff Michael J, McGowan Patrick O, Boonstra Rudy
Department of Biology, University of Victoria Victoria, BC, Canada.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2011 Apr 25;4:21. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2011.00021. eCollection 2010.
That the fear and stress of life-threatening experiences can leave an indelible trace on the brain is most clearly exemplified by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many researchers studying the animal model of PTSD have adopted utilizing exposure to a predator as a life-threatening psychological stressor, to emulate the experience in humans, and the resulting body of literature has demonstrated numerous long-lasting neurological effects paralleling those in PTSD patients. Even though much more extreme, predator-induced fear and stress in animals in the wild was, until the 1990s, not thought to have any lasting effects, whereas recent experiments have demonstrated that the effects on free-living animals are sufficiently long-lasting to even affect reproduction, though the lasting neurological effects remain unexplored. We suggest neuroscientists and ecologists both have much to gain from collaborating in studying the neurological effects of predator-induced fear and stress in animals in the wild. We outline the approaches taken in the lab that appear most readily translatable to the field, and detail the advantages that studying animals in the wild can offer researchers investigating the "predator model of PTSD."
创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）最清楚地证明了危及生命的经历所带来的恐惧和压力会在大脑中留下不可磨灭的痕迹。许多研究PTSD动物模型的研究人员采用将暴露于捕食者作为一种危及生命的心理应激源，以模拟人类的经历，并且由此产生的大量文献已经证明了许多与PTSD患者相似的持久神经学效应。尽管更为极端，但直到20世纪90年代，野生环境中捕食者引起的动物恐惧和压力都被认为没有任何持久影响，而最近的实验表明，对自由生活动物的影响足够持久，甚至会影响繁殖，不过持久的神经学效应仍未得到探索。我们认为，神经科学家和生态学家在合作研究野生环境中捕食者引起的动物恐惧和压力的神经学效应方面都将大有收获。我们概述了在实验室中采用的、似乎最容易转化到野外的方法，并详细说明了在野外研究动物可以为研究“PTSD捕食者模型”的研究人员带来的优势。
