Valid sensitive animal models are crucial for understanding the pathobiology of complex human disorders, such as anxiety, autism, depression and schizophrenia, which all have the 'spectrum' nature. Discussing new important strategic directions of research in this field, here we focus i) on cross-species validation of animal models, ii) ensuring their population (external) validity, and iii) the need to target the interplay between multiple disordered domains. We note that optimal animal models of brain disorders should target evolutionary conserved 'core' traits/domains and specifically mimic the clinically relevant inter-relationships between these domains.