Nicole C. Nelson, Model Behavior: Animal Experiments, Complexity, and the Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2018. Pp. 255. ISBN 978-0-2265-4608-7. $30.00 (paperback).

Abstract

Can a one-ounce laboratory mouse with a brain that can fit in a teaspoon really act as a model for the complex psychiatric disorders of its far larger and more neurologically complex mammalian relative, Homo sapiens? And does the heritability of laboratory animal behaviours such as a preference for avoiding the open arms of an elevated maze actually tell us anything about the influence of genetics on human medical conditions such as anxiety? Questions like these have long been raised by social scientists regarding animal behaviour genetics, and a common response has been to critically characterise such modelling approaches as deeply reductionist. Against this interpretation, Nicole Nelson strives to show, in this enlightening and lively book, that animal behaviour geneticists are fully aware of the difficulties of drawing analogies between human and animal behaviour and take complexity very seriously.