The Drug Science Podcast 142. Animal Research and the Future of Depression with Prof Emma Robinson
Dec 10, 2025
Join Prof Emma Robinson, a leading psychopharmacology expert from the University of Bristol, as she discusses the vital role of animal research in understanding depression. She tackles the ethical nuances of animal testing and shares insights on how psychedelics like psilocybin and ketamine could revolutionize mental health treatments. Emma also highlights innovative animal models for studying emotional memory and the nuances of drug effects. Discover her perspectives on the future of psychiatry, focusing on emotional biases and the path to integrating social factors into mental health care.
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Psychedelics Force New Mechanistic Thinking
- Psychedelics and ketamine challenge classic pharmacology because single, short exposures produce long-lasting emotional effects.
- This forces researchers to consider experience-dependent and memory-related mechanisms beyond simple receptor occupancy models.
Mood As Memory And Expectation
- Emma frames mood as experience- and memory-dependent, so affective biases arise from how past experiences shape expectations.
- Animal affective bias tests model this by creating distinct learned memories and measuring preference shifts after manipulations.
The Affective Bias Test In Rats
- Robinson's affective bias test trains rats to dig in bowls for food, then induces a negative 'bad day' to bias memory preference.
- Using this assay she mapped circuits (prefrontal cortex, amygdala) and replicated psilocybin effects via chemogenetic manipulation.