Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Behav Brain Res. 2013 Jan 1;236(1):295-306. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.09.005. Epub 2012 Sep 12.
Rodent behavioural tasks are indispensable to advance the understanding of gene × environment interactions in neuropsychiatric disorders and the discovery of new therapeutic strategies. Yet, the actual translation of rodent data to humans, and thereby the understanding of the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders is limited. The main reason for the translational flaw is that many behavioural tasks for rodents are based on face or predictive validity, whereas these types of validity often lack a pathophysiological basis. Furthermore, many behavioural tasks for rodents do not implement human task parameters or use task parameters in a controlled manner, whereas they are parameters that provide the environmental challenges to test gene function. The aim of this perspective is to address the status quo of behavioural tasks for rodents, their limitations and their strengths, and the reasons why they could lead to suboptimal translational research. I also suggest an approach to come closer to neuropsychiatric behavioural tasks for rodents, namely a more careful implementation of human task parameters and subdivision of behaviour into perceptional, motivational, activational and switching domains. Finally, I will touch upon behavioural tasks for rodents that are currently lacking and needed to catch up neuropsychiatric research.
啮齿动物行为任务对于深入了解神经精神疾病中的基因×环境相互作用以及发现新的治疗策略是不可或缺的。然而，将啮齿动物数据实际转化为人类数据，从而理解神经精神疾病的病理生理学仍然具有局限性。这种转化缺陷的主要原因是，许多用于啮齿动物的行为任务基于面部或预测有效性，而这些类型的有效性通常缺乏病理生理学基础。此外，许多用于啮齿动物的行为任务没有实施人类任务参数或没有以受控的方式使用任务参数，而这些参数提供了测试基因功能的环境挑战。本文的目的是讨论啮齿动物行为任务的现状、它们的局限性和优势，以及它们为什么可能导致转化研究效果不佳的原因。我还建议了一种接近啮齿动物神经精神行为任务的方法，即更仔细地实施人类任务参数，并将行为细分为感知、动机、激活和转换领域。最后，我将探讨目前缺乏的和需要赶上神经精神疾病研究的啮齿动物行为任务。
