AUTHOR=Leite-Almeida Hugo , Castelhano-Carlos Magda J. , Sousa Nuno 

TITLE=New Horizons for Phenotyping Behavior in Rodents: The Example of Depressive-Like Behavior

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.811987

DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2021.811987

ISSN=1662-5153

ABSTRACT=The evolution of the field of behavioural neuroscience is significantly dependent on innovative disruption triggered by our ability to model and phenotype animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders. The ability to adequately elicit and measure behavioural parameters are the fundaments on which the behavioural neuroscience community establishes the pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders as well as contributes to the development of treatment strategies for those conditions. Herein, we review how mood disorders, in particular depression, are currently modelled in rodents, focusing on the limitations of these models and particularly on the analyses of the data obtained with different behavioural tests. Finally, we propose the use of new paradigms to study behaviour using multidimensional strategies that better encompasses the complexity of psychiatric conditions, namely depression; these paradigms provide holistic phenotyping that is applicable to other conditions, thus promoting the emergence of novel findings that will leverage this field.