Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 13200, Bertam, Penang, Malaysia.
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.
Metab Brain Dis. 2018 Oct;33(5):1431-1441. doi: 10.1007/s11011-018-0250-2. Epub 2018 May 24.
Africa is faced with an increasing underrepresentation of her research progress in many fields of science including neuroscience. This underrepresentation stems from the very low investments directed towards research by African governments as these are thought to be high-priced. Scientists and researchers within the continent are left to compete highly for the very limited research grants or choose to fund research from their personal purse. Therefore, presenting a need for all possible strategies to make science and research approaches more affordable in Africa. This paper presents one of such strategy, which advocates the use of invertebrate animal models for neuroscience research in place of the commonly used vertebrate models. Invertebrates are cheaper, more available and easy to handle options and their use is on the rise, even in the developed societies of the world. Here, we investigate the current state of invertebrate neuroscience research in Africa looking at countries and institutions conducting neuroscience research with invertebrates and their publication output. We discuss the factors which impede invertebrate neuroscience research in Africa like lack of research infrastructure and adequate expert scientists and conclude by suggesting solutions to these challenges.
非洲在许多科学领域，包括神经科学，面临着其研究进展代表性不足的问题。这种代表性不足源于非洲政府对研究的投资非常低，因为人们认为研究成本很高。非洲大陆内部的科学家和研究人员要么不得不为非常有限的研究经费展开激烈竞争，要么选择从个人腰包中为研究提供资金。因此，需要采取一切可能的策略，使非洲的科学和研究方法更加负担得起。本文提出了其中一种策略，即提倡使用无脊椎动物模型替代常用的脊椎动物模型进行神经科学研究。无脊椎动物是更便宜、更容易获得和更易于处理的选择，它们的使用正在增加，甚至在世界上发达的社会中也是如此。在这里，我们调查了非洲无脊椎动物神经科学研究的现状，着眼于开展无脊椎动物神经科学研究的国家和机构及其出版物。我们讨论了阻碍非洲无脊椎动物神经科学研究的因素，如缺乏研究基础设施和足够的专家科学家，并提出了解决这些挑战的建议。
