The exploitation of primates at Oxford University in vivisection

In projects lasting months and even years, groups of monkeys were deliberately brain-damaged with chemicals and then set a battery of tests. Most of the experiments ended with the monkeys being killed and various body parts analysed. But prior to death, the animals in our highlighted experiments suffered symptoms which included seizures, vomiting, diarrhoea, tremors and uncontrollable body movements.

Examples of experiments taking place at Oxford University are as follows:

• Experiment 1: Brain damaged monkeys set thousands of tests.

  Six macaque monkeys at Oxford University were placed in small, individual cages in front of a computer screen, where they had to identify blue squares among green ones (or vice versa) several thousand times. In return, they received small food rewards. Then four of the six had different parts of the visual cortex of their brains removed and were subsequently re-tested several thousand more times. A key purpose of this experiment was to confirm the role played by particular parts of the brain in a phenomenon known as 'priming'. This is where an advantage is conferred on a subject when undertaking subsequent repetitions of a previously learned response. This information was already known from studies in humans. The researchers here could clearly have obtained these results from scanning human brains engaged in visual tasks. It is difficult to imagine benefits from this experiment significant enough to justify the enormous suffering of the animals involved.

  Funded by the Medical Research Council

  'Normal discrimination performance accompanied by priming deficits in monkeys with V4 or TEO lesions'; V Walsh et al; NeuroReport 2000 Vol 11, Issue 7, p1459-62

  It seems that Dr Walsh also does non-animal experiments

• Experiment 2: Brain damage tests last nine years.

  As part of a long-term study at Oxford University involving at least 20 monkeys, three macaques had part of their brains' visual cortex removed and were then tested at various times on a variety of visual tasks. The tests lasted for as long as nine years, by which time the three monkeys had died. As recognised from previous such research, the Oxford team found that the extent of visual damage varies even amongst monkeys with a similar level of deliberately inflicted brain damage. This is because the size of key parts of the brain are different in individual monkeys and different again in humans. Age when the surgical damage is inflicted and length of post-operative survival time also have an impact on the extent of the visual damage found. The results posed many more questions than answers but the researchers believed their experiments confirmed what had been already concluded from experiments by other research teams: namely, that the visual damage being studied in these surgically mutilated monkeys probably arose from differences in the number of cells in the different regions of the brain.

  Human head injury victims are, sadly, all too numerous, and would clearly be the ideal research subjects to speed progress into possible treatments for their own condition. Not only may non-invasive investigation of such patients yield vital clues and enable them to help themselves and others in their condition, but countless primates could be spared years of suffering and misery.

  Funded by the Medical Research Council.

  'Transneuronal retrograde degeneration of retinal ganglion cells following restricted lesions of striate cortex in the monkey'; H Johnson and A Cowey; Experimental Brain Research 2000 Vol 132, Issue 2, p269-75

Monkeys brain damaged at Oxford University

The University department of Experimental Psychology has published a number of reports.

For example:

• Monkeys and brain damage

  Monkeys were subjected to brain damage to assess the effect on emotion and motivation. Brain damage was produced either by the use of a toxic chemical or by surgical removal of parts of the cortex. Following the production of injuries to different areas of the brain, the monkeys behaviour was assessed. In a "food-preference test", monkeys were offered meat, which normal monkeys would usually avoid. (This test was used since earlier experiments had shown that brain damaged monkeys would eat meat.) Another test investigated the brain damaged animals reaction to stress and frustration. According to the scientists, "A frustration task was designed in which food was visible but unavailable to the monkey." The experiments showed that in some cases, brain damage led to more violent and aggressive behaviour.

  Funding: C. E. Stern funded in part by an O.R.S. award as partial fulfilment of a D. Phil degree at Oxford.

  (Ref.: C. E. Stern & R. E. Passingham, Behavioural Brain Research, 1996, vol. 75,179-193).

• Nerve cell experiments in monkeys

  In one report electrodes were inserted into monkeys' brains to measure how nerve cells respond to different tastes. Three macaques were used. The scientists justify their experiments by claiming they are needed "to understand how appetite and food intake are controlled by the brain, and disorders in appetite and feeding..."

  Funding: MRC and the International Glutamate Technical Committee.i

  (Ref.: E. T. Rolls et al, Physiology & Behaviour, 1996, vol. 59, 991-1000).

  In another, similar experiment (in collaboration with the University of Newcastle), the response of nerve cells in the brain to different faces was recorded.

  Funding: National Science Foundation, MRC and others.

  (Ref.: L. F. Abbott et al, Cerebral Cortex, 1996, vol. 6, 498-505).

Well-known primate behaviourist Dr. Jane Goodall has urged science 'to direct its collectively awesome intellect into different pathways in its search to alleviate human suffering'