title: Animal models of post-traumatic stress disorder: face validity.
abstract: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that develops in a proportion of individuals following a traumatic event. Despite recent advances, ethical limitations associated with human research impede progress in understanding PTSD. Fortunately, much effort has focused on developing animal models to help study the pathophysiology of PTSD. Here, we provide an overview of animal PTSD models where a variety of stressors (physical, psychosocial, or psychogenic) are used to examine the long-term effects of severe trauma. We emphasize models involving predator threat because they reproduce human individual differences in susceptibility to, and in the long-term consequences of, psychological trauma.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers State University Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Sonal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goswami
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Sierra
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cascardi
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paré
keywords: animal model; extinction; post-traumatic stress disorder; predator threat; recognition memory