Animal Models of Mood Disorders and Affective Biases

Animal models of mood disorders have traditionally relied on paradigms such as chronic stress exposure, behavioural despair tests and measures of anhedonia to recapitulate core features of depression and anxiety. While these approaches offer predictive validity for classical antidepressants, their translational value has been limited by narrow behavioural end points and uncertain construct validity. Over the past decade, research has shifted towards tasks that quantify affective biases—systematic deviations in decision making under ambiguity or in memory formation—to mirror the cognitive hallmarks of human mood disorders. Judgement bias tasks and affective bias tests now enable within-subject assessment of learning under positive or negative affective states, bridging the gap between preclinical and clinical neuropsychology. Advances in neuroscience have begun to delineate the underlying circuits, neurotransmitter systems and molecular pathways that drive these biases, offering new targets for rapid-acting and transdiagnostic interventions. This integrative framework holds promise for refining drug discovery, improving risk assessment for pro-depressant compounds and enhancing the global impact of preclinical psychiatric research.

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Animal Models of Mood Disorders and Affective Biases publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in animal models of mood disorders and affective biases across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Construct validity: The extent to which a model captures the underlying biological or psychological mechanisms of the human condition it simulates.

Face validity: The degree to which a model’s observable behaviours resemble the symptoms of the human disorder.

Predictive validity: The ability of a model to accurately forecast clinical efficacy or adverse effects of interventions.

Judgement bias task: An assay measuring decision-making under ambiguous cues to infer an animal’s affective state based on optimistic or pessimistic responses.

References

1. Encore: Behavioural animal models of stress, depression and mood disorders. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (2022).
2. Modelling cognitive affective biases in major depressive disorder using rodents. British Journal of Pharmacology (2014).
3. Pharmacological manipulations of judgement bias: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2019).
4. Translational new approaches for investigating mood disorders in rodents and what they may reveal about the underlying neurobiology of major depressive disorder. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (2018).
5. Distinct Neuropsychological Mechanisms May Explain Delayed- Versus Rapid-Onset Antidepressant Efficacy. Neuropsychopharmacology (2015).
6. Using the affective bias test to predict drug‐induced negative affect: implications for drug safety. British Journal of Pharmacology (2017).