Reasons for Using Animals in Psychological Research

Undergraduates sometimes ask what the value of animal research is in psychology. The study of nonhuman animals has actually played a huge role in psychology, and it continues to do so today. If you've taken an introductory psychology class, then you have probably read about seminal psychological research that was done with animals: Skinner's rats, Pavlov's dogs, Harlow's monkeys. Unfortunately, many introductory textbooks don't give the full picture of animal research. Studies are often described without specifying that they were animal studies. When human studies are presented, there is rarely discussion of the basic animal research that enabled those studies to be 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 issues that deserve better understanding and broader discussion.

Why Nonhuman Animals are Studied in Psychology

Part 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 be sure, each species has its own specializations that enable it to fit into its unique ecological niche; but common ancestry results in structural (e.g., brain) and functional (e.g., memory) processes that are remarkably similar between humans and nonhumans. In addition, we can better understand fundamental processes because of the precise control enabled by animal research (e.g., living environments, experimental conditions, etc.). We can also ask and answer certain questions that would be difficult or impossible to do with humans. For example, we know what the connections are between the amygdala and other brain regions, but how does activity in the amygdala affect brain functioning? Using a new technique, it is now possible to temporarily inactivate the amygdala in a monkey and see how other brain areas (including those that are not directly connected to the amygdala) change their activity (Grayson et al., 2016). A study such as this not only helps us better understand how the brain works, but it also has enormous potential for developing treatments for people who have abnormal patterns of brain activity, such as those with epilepsy or Parkinson's disease. Ten years from now, students may very well read in their textbooks about a "new treatment" to help people with Parkinson's disease. Will this monkey study, which enabled such a discovery to be made, be described? Probably not, in much the same way that nonhuman research that permitted a significant 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 minor (e.g., drawing a blood sample) to the more serious (e.g., neurosurgery). The research community tries to mitigate some of the harms by insuring, for example, that the animals' psychological well-being is optimized; in fact, there is a large body of psychological research that focuses on animal welfare and identifying best practices to house and care for animals in captivity. Still, some harms will remain, and ethically, one must weigh those harms against the potential benefits (for humans and for the animals themselves) to be obtained from the research. Equally important is the consideration of the potential harms to humans of not doing the research. For example, without any animal research, effective treatments for human conditions like Alzheimer's disease may very well be found, but it would certainly take decades longer to find them, and in the meantime, millions and millions of additional people would suffer.

Regulations for Animal Research

Finally, it's important to note that animal research in the United States is very tightly regulated by a series of federal and state laws, policies and regulations, dating back to the landmark Animal 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 Care and Use Committees (IACUCs). Even procedures as simple as drawing a blood sample or testing an animal on a cognitive task must be approved by the local IACUC before the work can begin. Part of that approval process requires the scientist to identify whether there might be less invasive ways to do the same thing. In addition, the scientist must justify the numbers of animals that they use, insuring they are using the smallest number possible.

Animal research continues to play a vital role in psychology, enabling discoveries of basic psychological and physiological processes that are important for living healthy lives. You can learn more about some of this research, as well as the ethical and regulatory issues that are involved, by consulting online resources such as Speaking of Research.

References

Grayson D.S., Bliss-Moreau E., Machado C.J., Bennett J., Shen K., Grant K.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, is a research psychologist in the department of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and a core scientist at the California National Primate Research Center. 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 department 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 Society of Primatologists, a recipient of the Patricia R. Barchas Award in Sociophysiology from the American Psychosomatic Society, a fellow of several professional societies, and in 2012, he received the Distinguished Primatologist Award from the American Society of Primatologists. He is currently the chair of APA's Committee on Animal Research and Ethics. Capitanio's research 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 functioning.

Reasons for Using Animals in Psychological Research

Source: https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2017/01/animal-studies

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