The behavioral science of psychology focuses on understanding behavior and the mind in both human and nonhuman animals through research called cognitive-behavioral research. According to Psychology Today, “The study of animal behavior is a cornerstone of experimental psychology, shedding light on complex human emotions.”1 Thus, in psychology animals are commonly used as models for the human mind and behavior, particularly for human conditions involving psychiatric disorders and neurological diseases. In his review of animal models in psychology, Dr. Kenneth Shapiro stated, “… psychologists have attempted to develop an animal model for virtually every known problem in the human condition that has even a remotely psychological cast.”2
In the quest for information on human cognition, mental illness, memory disorders, drug addiction, and how the body’s sensory system and central nervous system work, animals are subjected to experiments on vision, hearing, pain perception, hunger, thirst, reproduction and fetal development, fear, stress, aggression, learned helplessness, maternal deprivation, cigarette use, drug and alcohol abuse and dependence, and environmental toxins, to name a few. In research relating to the central nervous system, animals are used to study “the process of recovery after neural damage; biological correlates of fear, anxiety, and other forms of stress; subjective and dependence-producing effects of psychotropic drugs [drugs for mood or thought disorders]; and mechanisms that control eating and other motivational processes.”3
To create an animal model of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcoholism, autism, schizophrenia, anorexia, drug addiction, or spinal cord injury, a facsimile of the conditions of the disorder or disease is induced in an animal. This is accomplished by manipulation of the animal’s behavior and environment, invasive procedures to the brain and body, or genetic engineering. Animals...