Understanding the cognitive consequences of critical illness through experimental animal models.
Tuon and colleagues have developed an animal model to examine the impact of sepsis on memory in rats. They report important data that expand the understanding of the cognitive consequences of critical illness. Future research should follow this path of inquiry and extend animal models beyond aversive conditioning to include recently developed paradigms that will permit assessment of complex and cognitive processes, such as attention, episodic memory and orientation to time and place. This has the potential to greatly increase the putative understanding of the homologous neurocognitive dysfunctions acquired during critical illness.
Gunther
Max
M
Department of Radiological Sciences, Center for Health Services Research, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt Institute of Imaging Sciences, Nashville, TN 37232-8300, USA. max.gunther@venderbilt.edu
English
Brett
B
D000818:Animals; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D032882:Comprehension; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans