Science and reflex impairment testing using RAMP

RAMP is a method for testing whole animal reflex impairment and can be used in scientific inquiry.  The method of science includes three key elements for the explanation and prediction of observations through hypotheses.  Scientific hypotheses are 1) confirmable, meaning that they can make unexpected predictions about outcomes of experiments; 2) falsifiable, meaning that they can be tested by specific experiments; and 3) unique, meaning that they are the simplest and most plausible explanations for experimental observations.

Scientific hypotheses and explanations that fail these three tests are abandoned as not consistent with rational thought and discourse.  There are, of course, unlimited non-rational explanations for observations and perceptions and these are the purview of imagination, art, religion, philosophy, and politics as subjects of opinion and not necessarily open to testing, validation, and changing minds through discourse.  Lots of fun can obtain from imagination and humans consistently enjoy imaginative play outside of the realm of scientific inquiry.

The RAMP method certainly contains the three tests for scientific inquiry.  The RAMP reflex tests are specific observations of animal responses that are stable and repeatable under control conditions and that change as animal vitality is impaired.  These tests are designed as a quantitative language to communicate whole animal vitality states to observers.  RAMP can be used to confirm new predictions about animal vitality, morbidity and mortality.  Animals can be experimentally exposed to stressors (light, sound, temperature, hypoxia, injury, handling, and xenobiotics) in a wide variety of ecologically and economically relevant settings.  Specific stress outcomes (vitality, recovery, morbidity, and mortality) can be predicted using RAMP and then validated by observations through time and space.  RAMP can be used to falsify specific hypotheses concerning relationships among stressors, animal vitality, and stress outcomes.  RAMP can be used to identify unique explanations for experimental observations of animal outcomes in stressful conditions because of its singular expression of animal vitality, without being confounded with other factors, i.e., motivation, avoidance, attraction, size, sex, and species.

Additionally, RAMP is an interesting formulation of specific animal neurological, muscle, and organ reflex actions.  While RAMP accurately measures whole animal reflex impairment, the mechanistic details of reflex actions remain to be studied, as little is known about how stressors affect neurological function and associated reflex actions in different phyla.  The fact that reflex impairment is almost immediate after exposure to acute stressors suggests that neurological changes are important primary stress responses.  However, quantification of neurological dynamics is difficult and expensive because of their ephemeral nature.  Although rapid neurological changes in a stressed animal may be short-lived, RAMP data show that these changes exert profound control of reflex actions and later fitness outcomes.