= Animal model
An <animal model> is an <animal>, or an experimentally defined population of <animals>, used to investigate a biological process relevant to another setting, often human <physiology> or <disease>. Its usefulness depends on the specific mechanism and measured outcome. Sharing a visible <phenotype> does not establish that every cause or response is shared.
For example, experiments in rats tested whether a compound enhanced <fear extinction> by measuring fear-potentiated startle after repeated presentations of a previously threatening cue. The defined behavioural protocol made a learning mechanism experimentally accessible.<Facilitation of conditioned fear extinction by systemic administration or intra-amygdala infusions of D-cycloserine as assessed with fear-potentiated startle in rats by David L. Walker and others>[2002, abstract and conditioning/extinction experiments]{ref} This establishes an effect on a rat learning assay; whether the same intervention improves a human clinical outcome is a further question. A good <animal model> makes the proposed correspondence explicit enough to test.
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