Animal Models of Schizophrenia and Associated Cognitive Dysfunction

Schizophrenia, a chronic debilitating brain disorder, affects about 1% of the world’s population and is one of the most complex diseases in psychiatry. Despite intensive research, the molecular etiology and pathophysiology of the disease remain ambiguous and limited. Modeling aspects of schizophrenia in animals is critical for understanding the pathophysiology of the disease and may play a pivotal role in the development of novel treatments. This chapter aims to review various animal and invitro models relevant to schizophrenia and discuss various aspects to comprehend the pathophysiology, mimic the symptoms and utility in novel target identification and development. The clinical symptoms of schizophrenia are broadly classified as positive, negative, and cognitive, with the current treatments focusing mainly on positive symptoms and a limited focus on negative and cognitive symptoms. We further focus on the models to evaluate various cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia which tend to be long-lasting, like working memory, visual memory, attention, and social cognition.

Keywords: Animal models, Genetic model, In-vitro model, Lesion model, MAM model, Pharmacological model, Post-weaning social isolation model, Schizophrenia.