Epigenetics & Neurobiology Unit, EMBL Rome, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Monterotondo, Italy.
School of Brain Science and Brain Medicine, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2024 Dec;25(12):809-819. doi: 10.1038/s41583-024-00858-2. Epub 2024 Oct 14.
The study of behaviour is dominated by two approaches. On the one hand, ethologists aim to understand how behaviour promotes adaptation to natural contexts. On the other, neuroscientists aim to understand the molecular, cellular, circuit and psychological origins of behaviour. These two complementary approaches must be combined to arrive at a full understanding of behaviour in its natural setting. However, methodological limitations have restricted most neuroscientific research to the study of how discrete sensory stimuli elicit simple behavioural responses under controlled laboratory conditions that are only distantly related to those encountered in real life. Fortunately, the recent advent of neural monitoring and manipulation tools adapted for use in freely behaving animals has enabled neuroscientists to incorporate naturalistic behaviours into their studies and to begin to consider ethological questions. Here, we examine the promises and pitfalls of this trend by describing how investigations of rodent fear, aggression and dominance behaviours are changing to take advantage of an ethological appreciation of behaviour. We lay out current impediments to this approach and propose a framework for the evolution of the field that will allow us to take maximal advantage of an ethological approach to neuroscience and to increase its relevance for understanding human behaviour.
行为学研究主要有两种方法。一方面，行为生物学家旨在理解行为如何促进对自然环境的适应。另一方面，神经科学家旨在理解行为的分子、细胞、回路和心理起源。为了全面了解自然环境中的行为，这两种互补的方法必须结合起来。然而，方法上的限制使得大多数神经科学研究仅限于在实验室条件下研究离散的感官刺激如何引发简单的行为反应，而这些实验室条件与现实生活中遇到的条件相差甚远。幸运的是，最近用于在自由活动动物中进行神经监测和操作的工具的出现，使神经科学家能够将自然行为纳入他们的研究，并开始考虑行为学问题。在这里，我们通过描述啮齿动物恐惧、攻击和支配行为的研究如何改变以利用对行为的行为学理解，来探讨这一趋势的优缺点。我们列出了实现这一方法的当前障碍，并提出了一个该领域发展的框架，这将使我们能够充分利用行为学方法进行神经科学研究，并提高其对理解人类行为的相关性。
