Animal Models in the Neurobehavioral Research

신경행동학적 연구의 동물모형

Model' is one of the well-used, but poorly understood word in the neurobehavioral research. After Darwin's evolutionary theory, it has been generally believed that human is different from animals in terms of the complexity, not of the essential. This notion could be applied to the mind as well as body. Therefore, it became possible to establish animal models in the scientific field of mind. Experimental analysis of the animal behavior becomes an important area for establishing an animal model of human psychopathology because behavior is the ambassador of the mind. A model emphasizes a structural correspondence between sets of causally related variables in two different domains such as the animal and the human. The first selection of elements of the two domains in correspondence called the initial analogy. Once the initial analogy is formed. causally related variables in the two domains are examined and arrayed The structural parallel is the formal analogy of a model, and similarities between corresponding variables are called material analogy. Models may serve any of three major functions ; heuristic, evidential and representative. In many cases, utilizing models may be more practical than directly assessing the domain of primary interest, since technical and/or ethical problems are more serious in the human domain. Although modeling is important to study human psychopathology, rare animal models approved to be a good model for the human psychopathology up to now. Developing the appropriate model is urgent to solve many problems raised from human psychopathology.