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，研究者通常通过实施液体限制方案来驱使猕猴参与实验。具体而言，会控制猕猴每日的饮水时长，并以液体滴液作为其在实验室中正确完成试次的奖励。尽管此类方案应用广泛且效果优异，但从3Rs原则的视角出发，探究能够缓解液体限制严苛程度的优化方案仍具有重要意义。本研究针对4只参与简单认知任务的恒河猴，评估了以社会刺激物（同种个体图像）作为奖励的可行性。结果发现，每只猕猴均表现出对雄性面部图像、雌性会阴区图像以及对照刺激物的个体偏好。然而，在逐试次的实验中，偏好的图像并未成为有效的激励手段：即便放松了液体限制，猕猴仍更青睐液体奖励。相较于彩色图像，使用灰度图像时，猕猴的任务表现并无显著差异。基于本研究结果，我们不建议采用此类形式的社会刺激物，作为现有液体限制方案的优化手段。最后，我们探讨了未来研究可采用的潜在替代方案与研究方向。