ReviewCognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience2024
Rodent tests of depression and anxiety: Construct validity and translational relevance.
Review in Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Gut microbiota-dependent mechanisms and efficacy of natural polysaccharides in multitarget antidepressant therapy: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Flavonoids as Anxiolytics in Animal Tests: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Bibliometrical Analysis.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of caffeine on neuroinflammation in anxiety and depression: a systematic review of rodent studies.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Therapeutic Potential of Saffron Extract in Mild Depression: A Study of Its Role on Anhedonia in Rats and Humans.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2025Trial
- Distinct EEG Features and Sleep/Wake Behaviour Predict Anxiety Phenotypes in Mice.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- The Impact of Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy on Behavioral and Reward-Related Outcomes.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Continuous OFT-Based Behavioral Phenotyping Reveals Neural Stem Cell-Associated Shifts in Depression-like Mice.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Aversive 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalization playback reveals differences in affective (dys)function following early life adversity in male and female juvenile rats.Behavioural brain research · 2026Article
- Erythritol Exacerbates DSS-Induced Colitis and Influences Behavioral Responses in Mice Through Gut Microbiota and Metabolic Alterations.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Modeling Concurrent Hedonic Disruption During Excessive Drinking and Abstinence-Related Negative Affect in a Novel Selectively Bred Mouse Line: The Crossed High Alcohol Preferring X High Drinking in the Dark (cHAPxHDID) Mice.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2026Article
- Variation in cocaine responses across genetically diverse mouse strains.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Deep behavioral phenotyping reveals novel features in a mouse model of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Chronic unpredictable mild Stress- induced neurobehavioral and metabolic alteration: insights into molecular mechanisms and emerging therapeutic Strategies".Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Locus coeruleus α-synuclein overexpression induces prodromal Parkinsonian features in mice.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- Repurposing lurasidone to alleviate doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity via BDNF/TrkB/PI3K/Akt/CREB and miR-34a-5p/PGC-1α pathways.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- A modified tail suspension test for the assessment of behavioral despair in mice after stroke.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2026Article
- Electroacupuncture prevents CUMS induced depressive-like behaviors by inhibiting microglia-mediated synaptic pruning induced by gut dysbiosis.Chinese medicine · 2026Article
- Ginsenosides in the management of depression: a comprehensive pharmacological review.Chinese medicine · 2026Review
- Choline supplementation partially reverses prefrontal neurochemical deficits induced by perinatal opioid exposure.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Eliciting social approach-avoidance conflict within a novel experimental paradigm: psychometric and computational evidence with a successful pre-registered replication.Cognition & emotion · 2026Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Behavioral testing constitutes the primary method to measure the emotional states of nonhuman animals in preclinical research. Emerging as the characteristic tool of the behaviorist school of psychology, behavioral testing of animals, particularly rodents, is employed to understand the complex cognitive and affective symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Following the symptom-based diagnosis model of the DSM, rodent models and tests of depression and anxiety focus on behavioral patterns that resemble the superficial symptoms of these disorders. While these practices provided researchers with a platform to screen novel antidepressant and anxiolytic drug candidates, their construct validity-involving relevant underlying mechanisms-has been questioned. In this review, we present the laboratory procedures used to assess depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors in rats and mice. These include constructs that rely on stress-triggered responses, such as behavioral despair, and those that emerge with nonaversive training, such as cognitive bias. We describe the specific behavioral tests that are used to assess these constructs and discuss the criticisms on their theoretical background. We review specific concerns about the construct validity and translational relevance of individual behavioral tests, outline the limitations of the traditional, symptom-based interpretation, and introduce novel, ethologically relevant frameworks that emphasize simple behavioral patterns. Finally, we explore behavioral monitoring and morphological analysis methods that can be integrated into behavioral testing and discuss how they can enhance the construct validity of these tests.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.