Abstracts Biological Sciences

Assessing cognitive, motivational and neurobiological dysfunction in mouse models for schizophrenia

by DAISY LOU SPARK

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder that remains poorly treated despite extensive drug discovery efforts over the past 50+ years. Development of more effective medicines has been limited by a disconnect between how schizophrenia-related dysfunction is assessed in humans vs rodent models. This thesis provides important insights into behavioural and neurobiological dysfunction in three distinct rodent models for schizophrenia, with a focus on cross-species measures of dysfunction. These findings are expected to add to a growing toolbox of animal models validated against specific symptoms that together represent the scope of dysfunction in schizophrenia patients.