Developmental Manipulation-Induced Changes in Cognitive Functioning

Schizophrenia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with as-yet no identified cause. The use of animals has been critical to teasing apart the potential individual and intersecting roles of genetic and environmental risk factors in the development of schizophrenia. One way to recreate in animals the cognitive impairments seen in people with schizophrenia is to disrupt the prenatal or neonatal environment of laboratory rodent offspring. This approach can result in congruent perturbations in brain physiology, learning, memory, attention, and sensorimotor domains. Experimental designs utilizing such animal models have led to a greatly improved understanding of the biological mechanisms that could underlie the etiology and symptomology of schizophrenia, although there is still more to be discovered. The implementation of the Research and Domain Criterion (RDoC) has been critical in taking a more comprehensive approach to determining neural mechanisms underlying abnormal behavior in people with schizophrenia through its transdiagnostic approach toward targeting mechanisms rather than focusing on symptoms. Here, we describe several neurodevelopmental animal models of schizophrenia using an RDoC perspective approach. The implementation of animal models, combined with an RDoC framework, will bolster schizophrenia research leading to more targeted and likely effective therapeutic interventions resulting in better patient outcomes.