Program Emotion and Cognition, Department of Farm Animal Health, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Genes Brain Behav. 2010 Nov;9(8):849-55. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2010.00628.x.
Recently, a debate has emerged on the use and necessity of standardization in experimental testing using animal subjects. The difficulties encountered when trying to reconcile standardization and generalization largely underlie this debate. The more specific the testing procedures are, the less one can generalize to more naturalistic situations, including to human clinical populations. If the goal of a study is to generalize to a larger population, there may be a higher risk attached to false-positive than false-negative results; thus the balance sways toward generalization. Heterogenization of housing conditions and of genetic makeup of experimental animals has been suggested as a possible method to increase the generalizability of results. It is important to remain cognizant, however, of situations in which false negatives can be counterproductive or even dangerous, such as when the goal is to elucidate a physiological mechanism, when expected effect sizes are small, in toxicological studies and in drug safety testing. In such cases, experiments based on standardization may provide more useful information. We pose that it is essential that the goal of the specific experiment conducted is clearly defined and that the decision to balance between standardization and generalization must be made based on the specific needs to meet the intended goal. In this light, we discuss a multi-tiered approach to animal experimentation, in which standardization and generalizability are each given precedence during different phases of a project, depending upon the goal of the experiment.
最近，关于在使用动物进行实验测试时标准化的使用和必要性，出现了一场争论。这场争论的核心是，在试图协调标准化和推广性时所遇到的困难。测试程序越具体，就越难以推广到更自然的情况，包括人类临床人群。如果研究的目标是推广到更大的人群，那么假阳性结果的风险可能比假阴性结果更高；因此，平衡倾向于推广。有人建议，通过增加实验动物的住房条件和遗传组成的异质性，可以提高结果的推广性。然而，重要的是要意识到，在某些情况下，假阴性结果可能适得其反，甚至是危险的，例如当目标是阐明生理机制时，当预期的效应大小较小时，在毒理学研究和药物安全性测试中。在这种情况下，基于标准化的实验可能会提供更有用的信息。我们认为，明确规定具体实验的目标至关重要，并且必须根据满足预期目标的具体需求来决定在标准化和推广性之间进行平衡。有鉴于此，我们讨论了一种多层次的动物实验方法，根据实验的目标，在项目的不同阶段，标准化和推广性各有侧重。
