Translating Animal Models Into Empirical Foundations for Practice

Animal models have been used widely to study a broad range of behaviors and disorders. Current animal models provide a window into behavioral mechanisms across the lifespans, allowing researchers to investigate complex epigenetic interactions, cellular processes and the organization and dysregulation of neuronal systems. The present editorial for the special issue of Translational Issues in Psychological Science, "Animal Models as Empirical Foundations for Practice", highlights a few contemporary uses of animal models in psychological science. Here we focus on three articles using animal models to investigate gambling behavior, alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress related neurobehavioral processes. We close this editorial with the observation that advances in biomedical science will further facilitate the use of animal models as empirical foundations for practice in the psychological sciences.