Events

Improving Animal Models of Human Behavioral and Social Processes

Monday-Tuesday, July 23-24, 2012

Room C-F, Executive Plaza North
6130 Executive Blvd.
Rockville, MD 20852

The workshop brought together experts from the scientific community to discuss strategies for improving animal models of human behavioral and social processes. Its goals were twofold: 1) to identify animal models of human behaviors that have been particularly successful and generative, so that we can learn from those successes to guide future activities, and 2) to discuss how best to approach human processes that have been particularly challenging to model in animals.

The overarching question posed was: What can the National Institutes of Health (NIH) do to foster the identification and development of powerful animal models for human behavioral and social processes, particularly those that have traditionally been difficult to model? This might be accomplished by fostering the creation of new animal models or modification of existing ones.

List of Registrants | Workshop Summary

Day 1 (July 23, 2012)
8:30 am – 8:40 am	Welcome and Introductions Improving animal models of behavioral and social processes Deborah Olster, PhD, NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
8:40 am – 8:55 am	Welcome to OppNet: Three years of trans-NIH research in the behavioral and social sciences William Elwood, PhD, OppNet Facilitator NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
8:55 am – 9:05 am	Call the movers! Moving animal research findings to human application Minda Lynch, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse
Session 1: Opening Addresses
9:05 am – 9:35 am	Animal models of human behavioral and social processes: What is a good animal model? Dario Maestripieri, PhD, University of Chicago
9:35 am – 10:05 am	Animal models: Themes and examples C. Sue Carter, PhD, Research Triangle Institute International
10:05 am – 10:20 am	Break
Session 2: Success stories Chaired and moderated by Jeanne Altmann, PhD, Princeton University
	In this session, researchers who work on a behavioral process in both humans and animal models (either themselves or by collaboration) will discuss the principles and processes of successful development of an animal model for a human behavioral or social process.
10:20 am – 10:40 am	What do we want out of our ideal behavioral method? Tim Bussey, PhD, University of Cambridge
10:40 am – 11:00 am	Psychosocial stress and immunodeficiency virus disease in rhesus macaques John Capitanio, PhD, University of California, Davis
11:00 am – 11:20 am	Rodent models of sociality, health and life histories: Social isolation, stress, and the biological mechanisms of breast cancer Martha McClintock, PhD, University of Chicago
11:20 am – 11:40 am	Delay discounting (intertemporal choice or impulsive choice) in mice and rats Suzanne Mitchell, PhD, Oregon Health and Sciences University
11:40 am – 12:00 pm	Animal models of human memory and human memory impairment Larry Squire, PhD, University of California, San Diego
12:00 pm – 12:05 pm	Lessons learned from the less successful efforts Mort Mishkin, PhD, National Institute of Mental Health
12:05 pm – 12:40 pm	General Discussion
12:40 pm – 1:40 pm	Lunch (on your own)
Session 3: Particularly challenging human behavioral and social processes
1:40 pm – 1:45 pm	Introduction to Session 3 “Conversations” Deborah Olster, PhD, NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
1:45 pm – 2:20 pm	Social interactions: Cooperative and Competitive Behavior Janine Simmons, MD, PhD, National Institute of Mental Health, Moderator Animal models of human social behavior Bill Harbaugh, PhD, University of Oregon Cognitive building blocks of cooperation Jeffrey Stevens, PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2:20 pm – 2:55 pm	Emotion Ellen Witt, PhD, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Moderator How neuroscience can illuminate the nature of the human emotional feelings: To understand key psychiatric issues we need a cross-species neuroscientific understanding of neglected topics such as sadness and joy Jaak Panksepp, PhD, Washington State University What happens to our emotions in normal aging? Robert Levenson, PhD, University of California, Berkeley
2:55 pm – 3:30 pm	Communication (Voice, Speech and Language) Lana Shekim, PhD, National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, Moderator Communication (voice, speech, and language) Kristina Simonyan, MD, PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine Communication (voice, speech, song, language) Erich Jarvis, PhD, Duke University
3:30 pm – 3:45 pm	Break
3:45 pm – 4:20 pm	Population dynamics Michael Spittel, PhD, NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, Moderator Humans, nonhumans and general principles of disease ecology James Holland Jones, PhD, Stanford University Evolution of sociality in wasps: Implications for comparative studies of social and behavioral processes James Carey, PhD, University of California, Davis
4:20 pm – 4:55 pm	Lifespan/developmental perspective Erica Spotts, PhD, National Institute on Aging, Moderator Health effects of early life adversity: Evidence from non-human primates Gabriella Conti, PhD, University of Chicago Nonhuman primate models of developmental effects of early life stress: Brain, behavior, and stress physiology Mar Sanchez, PhD, Emory University
4:55pm – 5:30 pm	General Discussion & Wrap-up for the Day

Day 2 (July 24, 2012)
8:30 am – 8:45 am	Orientation/charge for breakout sessions Minda Lynch, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse
8:45 am – 10:15 am	Breakout sessions In these sessions, participants discuss potential next steps toward solutions in a number of domains, including specific recommendations for NIH actions. Science of behavioral animal models translation Lisa Freund, PhD, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Moderator/Scribe Human capacity building and training Deborah Olster, PhD, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, Moderator/Scribe Measuring behavioral and social processes Minda Lynch, PhD, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Moderator/Scribe Fostering collaboration among scientists who work on animals and those who work on humans Ivana Grakalic, PhD, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Moderator/Scribe
10:15 am – 10:30 am	Break
10:30 am – 11:10 pm	Reports from breakout sessions
11:10 am – 11:30 am	Reflections on translation from animal models to the human condition Rajita Sinha, PhD, Yale University
11:30 am – 12:00 pm	General Discussion Next steps
12:00 pm	Adjourn