Anxiety rodent behavior studies

Comprehensive studies based on rodent models of anxiety have not only underlined that anxiety in itself represents a complex behavioral system but also that it is determined by both genetic and environmental factors as well as by the interaction between both. The examples used in this section have been selected to illustrate both the potential and the caveats of current models and the emerging possibilities offered by gene technology. These examples are thought to be representative of the different concepts followed in generating animal models. 

Rodent models have been used successfully to study generalized anxiety, but, unfortunately, their applicability to the study of panic attacks is doubtful [File 1995]. In contrast, nonhuman primate models of both anxiety and panic have been developed in our own group and in other laboratories. These models, which typically involve the administration of a challenge agent to a singly caged animal, have been successful because fear and anxiety occur spontaneously in the primate, typically in response to social or environmental threat, and because monkeys exhibit much the same behavioral repertoire in their natural environment and in captivity [Higley and Suomi 1989 Kalin and Shelton 1989 Sapolsky 1990 Suomi 1982]. 

---