POWRE: The History of Animal Models: Diversity in the Use of Animals in Experimental Physiology and Experimental Psychology

大多数科学都寻求实验结果和理论的普遍性。 然而，生命现象是高度可变的，生命科学家必须问，在受控条件下获得的实验结果是否广泛适用于其他更复杂的环境。 生物学实验中使用的特定试验动物可能会极大地影响实验室结果的一般性。 本研究将探讨1880-1900年间德国和美国生理学和心理学研究中实验动物模型的发展历史。 研究者将重点关注与这些领域中早期使用试验动物相关的普遍性假设的历史变化，以表明尽管科学家们当时寻求普遍性，但他们也非常强调可能限制普遍性的物种差异。 然而，到了1930年，生命科学已经出现了一些常见的动物模型。 在广泛使用的动物模型被选择性地培育用于研究之后，关于物种差异的假设发生了变化。 早期对多样性和可能使一个物种的结果不适用于另一个物种的情况的强调已经消失。 相反，后来许多科学家只是假设了一般性。 也就是说，即使在进行测量之前，他们也经常假设测试动物是体现许多不同物种共有共性的模型。 在生命科学中，实验方法的空前发展导致了在高度受控的人工环境下对极少数物种的深入研究。 随着一些实验动物的广泛使用，很少有科学家明确解决普遍性问题。 然而，关于普遍性的局限性的问题是当代实验室科学面临的最令人不安的问题之一。 对动物模型使用变化历史的研究突出了试验动物在构建关于普遍性和多样性的假设方面的作用。 这些假设在应用研究中特别重要，因为研究结果对人类健康和调整的重要性直接取决于从动物身上获得的结果的效用。 本研究从历史上考察了关于一般性的假设是否已不加批判地嵌入到试验动物的使用中，并评估了可能导致这些情况的事件。 在那里，这项工作解决了生命科学中的一个基本问题：鉴于生命的明显多样性，尽可能实现最大的科学普遍性。 研究者对野生鸣禽发声信号的生殖和领地功能进行了二十年的科学研究。 虽然这个项目很成功，但科学和大学结构的变化使其难以维持。 因此，她正在改变她的职业重点，将她的中心焦点从动物交流的科学研究转移到强调实验心理学和实验生理学历史之间的相互关系。 该奖项将使她能够利用她在动物学，生理学和心理学方面的科学背景，为理解美国科学中的基本问题做出贡献。 此外，由于该项目将德国生理学与美国动物模型传统的变化联系起来，它符合POWRE计划在美国和其他国家的科学之间建立国际联系的目标。

Most sciences seek generality of experimental results and theory. However, the phenomena of life are highly variable, and life scientists must ask whether experimental results obtained under controlled conditions are broadly applicable to other, more complex contexts. The specific test animal used in biological experiments may greatly influence the generality of laboratory results. This research will examine the history of the development of experimental animal models in research in physiology and psychology in Germany and America between 1880-1900. The investigator will focus on historical changes in the assumptions of generality associated with the early use of test animals in these fields to show that, though scientists at this time sought generality, they also placed great emphasis on species differences that could limit generality. By 1930, however, the life sciences had seen a proliferation of a few common animal models. After widely used animal models were selectively bred for research, assumptions about species differences changed. The early emphasis on diversity and on circumstances that might render results obtained on one species inapplicable to another was lost. Rather, later many scientists simply assumed generality. That is, even before taking measurements, they often presumed that test animals were models that embodied commonalties shared by many different species. In the life sciences, the unprecedented growth of the experimental method has led to the intensive investigation of a very few species under highly controlled artificial circumstances. With the widespread use of a few test animals, fewer scientists explicitly address the problem of generality. Yet, questions about the limits of generality are among the most troubling issues facing contemporary laboratory science. Research on the history of changes in the use of animal models highlights the role of test animals in framing assumptions about generality and diversity. These assumptions are particularly important in applied research, where the significance of findings for human health and adjustment depends directly on the utility of results obtained from animals. This research examines historically whether assumptions about generality have become uncritically embedded in the use of test animals and assess events that may have led to these circumstances. The work, there, addresses a fundamental problem in the life sciences: achieving the greatest scientific generality possible, given the manifest diversity of life. The investigator has conducted scientific research on the reproductive and territorial functions of vocal signals in wild songbirds for twenty years. While that program has been a successful one, changes in science and in the structure of her university have made it difficult to maintain. Therefore, she is changing her career emphasis, shifting her central focus away from scientific research on animal communication to instead stress interrelations between the histories of experimental psychology and experimental physiology. This award will enable her to draw on her scientific background in zoology, physiology, and psychology to contribute to an understanding of fundamental issues in American science. In addition, because the project links German physiology to the changes in the animal model tradition in America, it meets the POWRE program's goal of forging international links between science in the United States and other countries.