title: Important hints in behavioural teratology of rodents.
abstract: The paper deals with the most important items regarding the improvement of quality of experimental procedures when testing drug effects on behaviour and development of commonly-used rodent species. Current-used test procedures for immature and adult rodents exposed early developmentally are briefly described and recent advances and difficulties in their hands-on interpretation are highlighted. Comparability of measures in human and animals for drug-effect assessment is also shortly discussed. It is then stressed that studies on rodents carried out in seminaturalistic and naturalistic settings may offer a highly profitable direction for future research in behavioural teratology and toxicology. A final paragraph is dedicated to the bioethical aspects arisen from the use of large number of rodents subjects in behavioural testing.
authors.affiliation: Section of Behavioural Pathophysiology, Laboratorio di Fisiopatologia di Organo e di Sistema, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Viale Regina Elena 299, Italy. alleva@iss.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alleva
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sorace
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D012107:Research Design; D012377:Rodentia / Q000502:physiology*; D018600:Teratology / Q000379:methods*