Domain interplay concept in animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders: a new strategy for high-throughput neurophenotyping research

Abstract

Genetic and environmental factors play a key role in psychiatric disorders. While some disorders display exceptionally high heritability, others show gene x experience x personality interactions, contributing complexity to psychiatric phenotypes. As some brain disorders frequently overlap and co-occur (representing a continuum or spectrum of phenomena), modern psychiatry is shifting from "artificial" heterogeneity to the recognition of common elements in the pathogenesis of emotional, personality and behavioral disorders. Genetic animal models of these disorders represent an important direction of research, and are widely used to explore the role of different genes in brain mechanisms. Several concepts (such as endophenotypes, gene x environment interactions, and cross-species trait genetics) have been suggested for animal experimentation in this field. Here we develop a new concept based on targeting the complex interplay between different behavioral domains, meant to foster high-throughput phenotyping and integrative modeling of psychiatric disorders.