Beery Annaliese K
Department of Psychology, Department of Biology, Neuroscience Program, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA.
Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2018 Oct;23:143-149. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.06.016. Epub 2018 Aug 2.
The underrepresentation of female subjects in animal research has gained attention in recent years, and new NIH guidelines aim to address this problem early, at the grant proposal stage. Many researchers believe that use of females will hamper research because of the need for increased sample sizes, and increased costs. Here I review empirical research across multiple rodent species and traits that demonstrates that females are not more variable than males, and that for most traits, female estrous cyclicity need not be considered. I present statistical simulations illustrating how factorial designs can reduce the need for additional research subjects, and discuss cultural issues around the inclusion of male and female subjects in research.
近年来，动物研究中雌性实验对象的代表性不足问题受到了关注，美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）的新指南旨在在资助申请阶段尽早解决这一问题。许多研究人员认为，使用雌性动物会增加样本量需求和成本，从而阻碍研究。在此，我回顾了针对多种啮齿动物物种和性状的实证研究，这些研究表明雌性动物并不比雄性动物更具变异性，并且对于大多数性状而言，无需考虑雌性动物的发情周期。我展示了统计模拟，说明析因设计如何能够减少对额外研究对象的需求，并讨论了研究中纳入雄性和雌性实验对象的文化问题。
