And how relatable is it to humans?
In: Biology
For the most part, when using rodent models for the study of mental illness, researchers focus on pharmacological treatments and testing their efficacy. To make it more ELI5: with mice, scientists mostly look at what medicines work. So using that idea, you can work backwards in terms of quantifying what you’re looking for.
Anxiety is pretty easy to generate in rodents, and there are multiple ways to quantify how the rodent responds. You can draw blood and actually measure their stress hormones, or their neurotransmitters, and see how active/non active they are. You can also observe changes in behavior. Is a mouse exhibiting defensive behaviors, is a mouse exhibiting avoidant behaviors, monitoring their sleep patterns, etc.
“Quantifying” the mental illness really depends on what you’re specifically trying to observe. If you’re testing a new Xanax knockoff, you might focus and quantify the brain waves and sleep patterns. If you’re testing an anti-depression medication, you will observe potential behavior changes, as well as looking at neurotransmitter levels (if that’s what the medication focuses on).
Latest Answers