[Behavioral assessment of the "schizophrenia-like" phenotype in an animal model of neonatal lesion in the ventral hippocampus (NLVH) of young and adult rats].

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects one in 100 people worldwide, and is characterized by distorted thoughts and perceptions. Several animal models have been developed, based primarily on the study of the mechanism of action of antipsychotics. In this paper we present a number of classic behavioral tests (memory, social interaction, and pre-pulse inhibition) associated with schizophrenia in young and adult animals with NLVH. The animal model of NLVH is a heuristic model that discriminates, by behavioral testing, the phenotype "schizophrenia-like" from other behavioral paradigms such as depression and anxiety, specifically in adult animals. The genomics study of this model promises to be an important source of candidate genes for schizophrenia in humans.