Refinement techniques in non-human primate neuroscientific research

Non-human primates (NHP) are widely considered an essential model for biomedical research because of their close genetic, anatomo-functional and cognitive similarities to humans. These same reasons also raise particular ethical concerns for the unavoidable harm caused to these animals, in particular to those involved in neuroscientific studies. Besides reducing the number of animals needed to the absolute minimum, it is therefore essential to implement procedures allowing, at the same time, to minimize the harm to the animals and maximize the quality and ecological validity of the data. Technological progresses have made possible, for example, to self-train monkeys in their home cage with positive reinforcement techniques and to adopt various types of telemetric systems for wirelessly recording neuronal activity in freely behaving animals. Example of full application of these techniques are still very limited in the literature, but different recent international projects and pioneering studies are paving the way for turning to the use of new technologies to get a more "ethically acceptable" NHP neuroscientific research.