Continuous Telemetry to Enhance Animal Models of Psychiatric Illness (TIPS 2018)

While many innovative discoveries are being made in laboratories using animal models, these findings do not always translate well into humans. Naturalistic recordings of behavioral and neural activity from animals facilitated by technical innovations is paving the way for a new form of behavior-driven translation in CNS disorders. Leading neuroscientists will discuss how objective, continuous measurements, acquired over extended periods in ethological environments, could transform the therapeutic pipeline and deepen our understanding of functionally-relevant circuit neuroscience.

These remarks were part of the 2018 Technology in Psychiatry Summit, an event sponsored by the McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, which occurred November 1-2, 2018 at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Part of panel on Advancing Animal-Human Translational Science.

Themes/keywords: neurological basis for innate behaviors; translation of tools or methodologies between species; naturalistic recordings in animals; circuit neuroscience.

Bill Carlezon, PhD, is chief of the Jerry and Phyllis Rappaport Center of Excellence in Basic Neuroscience Research and director of the Behavioral Genetics Laboratory at McLean Hospital. Dr. Carlezon is primarily interested in the biological basis and treatment of psychiatric illness, specifically nature/nurture issues as they relate to the brain and the basic processes by which the brain develops and is modified in response to experience. He has won numerous awards for his research, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (George W. Bush), the Waletzky Award for Innovative Research in Drug Addiction and Alcoholism (Society for Neuroscience), and serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Please visit mclean.org/itp to learn more about the McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry.