Modeling specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder in rodents: the challenge to convey both cognitive and emotional features
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Andrea Berardi
Abstract
Aberrant emotional memory processing is a core, disabling feature of both specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), two psychiatric diseases of significant prevalence and morbidity whose cognitive symptoms cannot be adequately treated by current psychopharmacological tools. Elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the etiology of these diseases is of great interest for the identification of new therapeutics that improve not only the symptomatology but also the full recovery from the pathology. To this aim, several animal models have been proposed based on substantial resemblance between the behavioral alterations seen in animals and the human pathology. The purpose of this review is to describe and comment on the most commonly used rodent models of specific phobias and PTSD. A particular focus will be reserved to the cued version of fear conditioning, as the highly specific stimulus-bound conditioned fear response seems to fit well with clinical descriptions of phobic fear. Moreover, animal models of PTSD will be evaluated by referring to three elements that are considered essential in a valid model of this disease: stressor exposure, memory for the stressor, and anxiety-related behaviors. Finally, current therapeutic directions, with a focus on cannabinoid and glucocorticoid compounds, will be briefly outlined.
©2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Masthead
- Guest Editorial
- Special Issue: The emotional brain and its relation to psychopathology
- Emotional modulation of the synapse
- Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation
- PKMζ inhibition prevents the metaplastic change induced by conditioned taste aversion on insular cortex long-term potentiation in vivo
- Taste and odor recognition memory: the emotional flavor of life
- Intense emotional experiences and enhanced training prevent memory loss induced by post-training amnesic treatments administered to the striatum, amygdala, hippocampus or substantia nigra
- Prefrontal/accumbal catecholamine system processes emotionally driven attribution of motivational salience
- Spatial memory, plasticity and nucleus accumbens
- Serotonin and emotion, learning and memory
- Contribution of serotonin type 3 receptors in the successful extinction of cued or contextual fear conditioned responses: interactions with GABAergic signaling
- Bombesin receptor regulation of emotional memory
- Estrogen, cognitive functions and emotion: an overview on humans, non-human primates and rodents in reproductive years
- Molecular brake pad hypothesis: pulling off the brakes for emotional memory
- Emotional modulation of multiple memory systems: implications for the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Modeling specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder in rodents: the challenge to convey both cognitive and emotional features
- Learning to cope with stress: psychobiological mechanisms of stress resilience
- Effects of parabolic flight and spaceflight on the endocannabinoid system in humans
- Glucocorticoid-endocannabinoid interaction in cardiac surgical patients: relationship to early cognitive dysfunction and late depression
- Differences between the aging process and the chronic cerebrovascular impairment of memory functioning: the emotional and cognitive interaction
- A role for the superior colliculus in the modulation of threat responsiveness in primates: toward the ontogenesis of the social brain
- Cannabinoid modulation of mother-infant interaction: is it just about milk?
- Maternal exposure to low levels of corticosterone during lactation increases social play behavior in rat adolescent offspring
- Compulsive drug use and its neural substrates
- The role of the basal ganglia in motivated behavior
- The role of setting for ketamine abuse: clinical and preclinical evidence
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Masthead
- Guest Editorial
- Special Issue: The emotional brain and its relation to psychopathology
- Emotional modulation of the synapse
- Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation
- PKMζ inhibition prevents the metaplastic change induced by conditioned taste aversion on insular cortex long-term potentiation in vivo
- Taste and odor recognition memory: the emotional flavor of life
- Intense emotional experiences and enhanced training prevent memory loss induced by post-training amnesic treatments administered to the striatum, amygdala, hippocampus or substantia nigra
- Prefrontal/accumbal catecholamine system processes emotionally driven attribution of motivational salience
- Spatial memory, plasticity and nucleus accumbens
- Serotonin and emotion, learning and memory
- Contribution of serotonin type 3 receptors in the successful extinction of cued or contextual fear conditioned responses: interactions with GABAergic signaling
- Bombesin receptor regulation of emotional memory
- Estrogen, cognitive functions and emotion: an overview on humans, non-human primates and rodents in reproductive years
- Molecular brake pad hypothesis: pulling off the brakes for emotional memory
- Emotional modulation of multiple memory systems: implications for the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder
- Modeling specific phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder in rodents: the challenge to convey both cognitive and emotional features
- Learning to cope with stress: psychobiological mechanisms of stress resilience
- Effects of parabolic flight and spaceflight on the endocannabinoid system in humans
- Glucocorticoid-endocannabinoid interaction in cardiac surgical patients: relationship to early cognitive dysfunction and late depression
- Differences between the aging process and the chronic cerebrovascular impairment of memory functioning: the emotional and cognitive interaction
- A role for the superior colliculus in the modulation of threat responsiveness in primates: toward the ontogenesis of the social brain
- Cannabinoid modulation of mother-infant interaction: is it just about milk?
- Maternal exposure to low levels of corticosterone during lactation increases social play behavior in rat adolescent offspring
- Compulsive drug use and its neural substrates
- The role of the basal ganglia in motivated behavior
- The role of setting for ketamine abuse: clinical and preclinical evidence
