Data from: The use of preferred social stimuli as rewards for rhesus macaques in behavioural neuroscience

Macaques are often motivated to perform in neuroscientific experiments by implementing fluid restriction protocols. Daily access to water is controlled and the monkeys are rewarded with droplets of fluid for performing correct trials in the laboratory. Although these protocols are widely used and highly effective, it is important from a 3Rs perspective to investigate refinements that may help to lessen the severity of the fluid restriction applied. We assessed the use of social stimuli (images of conspecifics) as rewards for four rhesus macaques performing simple cognitive tasks. We found that individual preferences for images of male faces, female perinea and control stimuli could be identified in each monkey. However, using preferred images did not translate into effective motivators on a trial-by-trial basis: animals preferred fluid rewards, even when fluid restriction was relaxed. There was no difference in the monkeys’ performance of a task when using greyscale versus colour images. Based on our findings, we cannot recommend the use of social stimuli, in this form, as a refinement to current fluid restriction protocols. We discuss the potential alternatives and possibilities for future research.

在神经科学实验中，科研人员常通过液体限制方案驱动猕猴完成实验操作。实验人员会严格管控猕猴每日的饮水配额，并以液体滴液作为其正确完成实验室试次的奖励。尽管此类方案应用广泛且效果优异，但从动物实验3R原则（3Rs）的视角出发，探究能够缓解液体限制严苛程度的优化方案仍具备重要意义。本研究针对4只执行简单认知任务的恒河猴，评估了将社交刺激物（同种个体图像）作为奖励的可行性。我们发现，每只猕猴均表现出对雄性面孔图像、雌性会阴区图像以及对照刺激物的个体偏好。然而，即便选用猕猴偏爱的图像作为奖励，却无法在逐试次层面实现有效的驱动效果：即使放宽液体限制标准，猕猴依旧更倾向于选择液体奖励。相较于彩色图像，使用灰度图像时，猕猴的任务表现无显著差异。基于本研究结果，我们不建议采用此类形式的社交刺激物，作为对现有液体限制方案的优化手段。最后，我们探讨了潜在的替代方案以及未来研究的方向。