Research on the human microbiome has yielded numerous insights into health and disease,
but also has resulted in a wealth of experimental artifacts. Here, we present suggestions for …

Depression is apparently the most common psychiatric disease among the mood disorders
affecting about 10% of the adult population. The etiology and pathogenesis of depression …

Spatial working memory can be assessed in mice through the spontaneous alternation T-
maze test. The T-maze is a T-shaped apparatus featuring a stem (start arm) and two lateral …

We present a consolidated view of the complexity and challenges of designing studies for
measurement of energy metabolism in mouse models, including a practical guide to the …

Abstract The recently proposed Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) system defines
psychopathologies as phenomena of multilevel neurobiological existence and assigns them …

The current tests of anxiety in mice and rats used in preclinical research include the elevated
plus‐maze (EPM) or zero‐maze (EZM), the light/dark box (LDB), and the open‐field (OF) …

Chronic stress is one of the predominant environmental risk factors for a number of
psychiatric disorders, particularly for major depression. Different hypotheses have been …

Childhood traumatic events hamper the development of the hippocampus and impair
declarative memory in susceptible individuals. Persistent elevations of hippocampal …

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in (mini) pigs (Sus scrofa) as species for
cognitive research. A major reason for this is their physiological and anatomical similarity …

Animal models of epilepsy and seizures, mostly involving mice and rats, are used to
understand the pathophysiology of the different forms of epilepsy and their comorbidities, to …