key question Flashcards
state the key question
can the use of animals in research be justified ?
Why is this issue important?
Ethical way to research neurological disorders, increases biological technique to empirically observe changes, but animals cannot consent. not generalisable to humans. Sheer n.o and type of animals used, not known how significant research can be so it’s hard to compare the costs v benefits. ( 3Rs Reduction, Refinement, Replacement. However Kilkenny et al found 59% of UK and US studies mention n.o of animals used)
Arguments for using animals
Treatment for Parkinson disease by inserting an electrode into the patients brainand the effects it has on Basal Ganglia which wouldn’t be discovered without Benazzouz et all inducing the disease in monkeys and testing the electrodes. Humans and animals have enough similarities in their physiology and evolutionary past to justify conclusions from animal generalisation. Animals are good ppts they do not try to understand the purpose eg effects of demand characteristics are low so research tends to be highly reliable because of standardised lab exp which are easily replicated so very consistent, any neurobiological changes can be seen making research empirical which are characteristics of good scientific research. Van den Oover - neurobiological changes in medial prefrontal cortex as a result of exposing rats to heroin and had to remove the rats brains. Wagner at al - observed aggression levels of male mice after castration aggression went down when injected with testosterone it went up.
Arguments against using animals
Physiology is quite similar but not the same human behaviour is influenced by complex emotions, cognitions and social interactions eg Ferrari et al -link between neurotransmitters and aggression in rats by allowing rats to fight by introducing an intruder rat but on 11th day measured levels or serotonin and dopamine which decreased because they wanted a fight. However, you cannot generalise these results to humans as they wouldn’t fight immediately and have more complex behaviours. Environment and stress animals endure affect behaviour so results aren’t a good reflection of animals natural behaviour and alternatives improving with technology and vr can be used which is a better way of isolating variables and controlling them.
