[Alternatives to Animal Experimentation in University Education: Principles of Neurophysiology Exemplified by the Computer]

The basic physiology courses for students in biology and medicine include experiments on live animals or animal tissue. This article describes alternatives by replacing such experiments with simulation programs on personal computers. Programs for a neurophysiological experiment were developed at the Department of Neurobiology, University of Heidelberg, within the last years and have served to replace animal experiments in the basic training of biologists.