It is my understanding that neurological studies are usually conducted first on specimens such as mice, rats, or flies. I am aware that these animals are model organisms, and that findings collected from studies conducted on their genes and physiology would shed hints on the workings of human genes and physiology.
That being said, I am sure that there are still several differences, and that just because finding A was shown to be the case for Mus musculus, it would not always be as similar in the case of a human subject. What information should one ascertain, now, in order to justify that studies on a model organism would be applicable to human biology, particularly in the field of neuroscience?
Your question is much too broad to have a simple answer, and to some extent you've already provided a partial answer.
Although we often distinguish between "humans and animals", in biological terms, humans are just another animal species, a mammal.
Many fundamental physiological mechanisms are common to all animals - the pioneering studies explaining the basics of nerve and muscle function were carried out on invertebrates.
It's because of these similarities that every pharmaceutical for human use has first undergone extensive animal testing. It is also due to subtle species differences that some pharmaceuticals which appear promising in animal trials may still fail to deliver benefits when tested on humans.
However, over-all, since the start of experimental physiology in the 1840's, animal studies have proven to be invaluable for the understanding of human physiology, and basically every fact you read in your human physiology textbook is derived from animal studies.
It's important to choose a correct model animal for each study. For some studies, pigs are ideal, for other studies scientists have to use primates as models, and in other areas, the octopus might just do fine!
Your question is much too broad to have a simple answer, and to some extent you've already provided a partial answer.
Although we often distinguish between "humans and animals", in biological terms, humans are just another animal species, a mammal.
Many fundamental physiological mechanisms are common to all animals - the pioneering studies explaining the basics of nerve and muscle function were carried out on invertebrates.
It's because of these similarities that every pharmaceutical for human use has first undergone extensive animal testing. It is also due to subtle species differences that some pharmaceuticals which appear promising in animal trials may still fail to deliver benefits when tested on humans.
However, over-all, since the start of experimental physiology in the 1840's, animal studies have proven to be invaluable for the understanding of human physiology, and basically every fact you read in your human physiology textbook is derived from animal studies.
It's important to choose a correct model animal for each study. For some studies, pigs are ideal, for other studies scientists have to use primates as models, and in other areas, the octopus might just do fine!
There are specific animal models that are used to study the pathology of a specific disease and design a drug related to that disease. For example, the neurotransmitters in animals such as mice and rats are the same as in humans, and hence they are ideal animal models to study the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, or even in the case of addiction studies such as alcohol addiction. This is research at the most basic level.
Once a certain level of research has been carried out and the drug is ready to be launched into the market, in is exposed to four levels of clinical trials, in which they are first tested on animals, then on healthy individuals, and finally on diseased patients. This aims at testing the efficacy, side effects, and optimal dose of the drug.
Drug design begins with the most fundamental stage of in silico studies, and animal studies provide an important link before it is ready to be given to humans.
As you, mentioned, the differences between animals and humans cause minor problems regarding the pharmacodynamics of the drug, and this is the reason why clinical trials are conducted before the drug can hit the market.
Sometimes, if not always, new therapeutics can have important side effects that preclude direct experimental work in humans. In those cases, animal models provide a simple and straightforward way to sort out effective from ineffective and deleterious treatments. An interesting case case is gene therapy. In the case of alcoholism, there has been several attempts to manipulate the metabolism of alcohol to deter from relapse; yet it would have been irresponsible and not very cost-effective to try these out directly in humans.
A very good question and you have correctly identified that there is a problem with translation arising from species differences when relying on animal models. You ask what information you would need to justify animal studies applicable for human biology in neuroscience. The answer is you should first search all the literature for systematic reviews of animal models of the particular field of interest. Start by looking at the archives of SYRCLE. The NIH have recently announced that the majority of animal research particularly in neuroscience is irreproducible and are hastily trying to assemble some initiatives to reduce the amount of wasted research.
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