Undergraduates sometimes ask what the value of animate being research is in psychology. The study of nonhuman animals has actually played a huge part in psychology, and it continues to do so today. If you've taken an introductory psychology form, then you have probably read about seminal psychological enquiry that was done with animals: Skinner's rats, Pavlov's dogs, Harlow's monkeys. Unfortunately, many introductory textbooks don't give the total movie of animal research. Studies are frequently described without specifying that they were animal studies. When human studies are presented, there is rarely discussion of the basic animal enquiry that enabled those studies to exist done. Finally, information regarding the ethical and regulatory environments in which animal research is conducted is covered in a superficial manner or omitted altogether. These are important problems that deserve meliorate understanding and broader word.

Why Nonhuman Animals are Studied in Psychology

Office of the justification for why nonhuman animals are studied in psychology has to do with the fact of evolution. Humans share common ancestry with the species most commonly studied in psychology: mice, rats, monkeys. To exist sure, each species has its ain specializations that enable information technology to fit into its unique ecological niche; simply common ancestry results in structural (e.yard., encephalon) and functional (eastward.g., retention) processes that are remarkably similar between humans and nonhumans. In addition, nosotros can improve sympathize key processes because of the precise control enabled past animal inquiry (east.m., living environments, experimental conditions, etc.). We can also ask and reply certain questions that would be hard or impossible to exercise with humans. For example, we know what the connections are betwixt the amygdala and other encephalon regions, only how does activity in the amygdala affect brain functioning? Using a new technique, it is at present possible to temporarily inactivate the amygdala in a monkey and come across how other brain areas (including those that are not directly connected to the amygdala) change their activity (Grayson et al., 2016). A study such equally this not just helps us improve understand how the encephalon works, only it as well has enormous potential for developing treatments for people who have abnormal patterns of brain activeness, such as those with epilepsy or Parkinson'due south disease. X years from now, students may very well read in their textbooks well-nigh a "new treatment" to help people with Parkinson'due south disease. Will this monkey study, which enabled such a discovery to exist fabricated, exist described? Probably non, in much the same way that nonhuman enquiry that permitted a meaning human study to be conducted is rarely described in today's textbooks.

Weighing Harm and Benefit

Researchers who study nonhumans recognize that their studies may involve certain harms that can range from the relatively small-scale (e.g., drawing a blood sample) to the more serious (e.thou., neurosurgery). The research community tries to mitigate some of the harms past insuring, for instance, that the animals' psychological well-beingness is optimized; in fact, there is a large body of psychological research that focuses on animate being welfare and identifying all-time practices to business firm and care for animals in captivity. Still, some harms will remain, and ethically, i must weigh those harms confronting the potential benefits (for humans and for the animals themselves) to be obtained from the research. As important is the consideration of the potential harms to humans of non doing the research. For case, without any brute research, constructive treatments for human conditions like Alzheimer'south disease may very well be plant, but information technology would certainly accept decades longer to observe them, and in the meantime, millions and millions of additional people would suffer.

Regulations for Animal Inquiry

Finally, it's of import to notation that animal research in the United States is very tightly regulated by a serial of federal and country laws, policies and regulations, dating back to the landmark Beast Welfare Act from 1966. Oversight and inspection of facilities is provided by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and, at the local level by Institutional Animal Intendance and Use Committees (IACUCs). Even procedures every bit simple every bit drawing a blood sample or testing an brute on a cerebral task must be approved by the local IACUC before the piece of work can brainstorm. Function of that approval process requires the scientist to identify whether there might exist less invasive ways to do the same thing. In add-on, the scientist must justify the numbers of animals that they use, insuring they are using the smallest number possible.

Beast enquiry continues to play a vital function in psychology, enabling discoveries of basic psychological and physiological processes that are important for living healthy lives. You can acquire more than about some of this research, equally well as the upstanding and regulatory issues that are involved, past consulting online resources such as Speaking of Research.

References

Grayson D.S., Bliss-Moreau East., Machado C.J., Bennett J., Shen Yard., Grant Thou.A., Fair D.A., Amaral, D.G. The rhesus monkey connectome predicts disrupted functional networks resulting from pharmacogenetic inactivation of the amygdala. Neuron. 2016 Jul 20;91(2):453-66.

About the author

John Capitanio, PhD John Capitanio, PhD, is a research psychologist in the section of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and a core scientist at the California National Primate Research Centre. He received his PhD in comparative psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1982, and was a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychobiology in the section of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is the former associate director for research at the Primate Center, a past president of the American Social club of Primatologists, a recipient of the Patricia R. Barchas Laurels in Sociophysiology from the American Psychosomatic Lodge, a fellow of several professional person societies, and in 2012, he received the Distinguished Primatologist Honour from the American Guild of Primatologists. He is currently the chair of APA's Commission on Brute Research and Ideals. Capitanio's inquiry interests are focused on developing naturally-occurring nonhuman primate models of psychological processes, in order to better understand the underlying biology of phenomena such as loneliness, inhibited temperament and poor social operation.