Consideration of Physiologic Mechanisms in Animal Models of “Sudden Death”

Abstract

Animal research of the “sudden death” phenomenon purporting to demonstrate causal psychological states has serious methodologic problems. Neither models nor the definition of the term, “sudden death,” are uniformly adopted; thus, the literature contains many conflicting reports. Further, much of the work has dealt with assumed psychological causation which is nontestable in nonverbal animals and tends to obscure study of quantifiable behavioral and physiological mechanisms.