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Stop Animal
Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe
out animal experimentation"
Government Grants Promoting Cruelty to Animals
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
YALE E. COHEN - Primate Testing - 2005
Grant Number: 1R03MH069881-01A2
Project Title: Ethological Categorization and the Prefrontal
Cortex
PI Information: PROFESSOR YALE E. COHEN,
yec@dartmouth.edu
Abstract: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Communication is 1
of the fundamental components of both human and non-human animal
behavior. While the benefits and importance of language in human
evolution are obvious, other non-human communication systems are also
important. These communication systems are important, because for most,
if not all, species, they are critical to the species' survival. For
example, auditory communication signals (i.e., species-specific
vocalizations, SSVs) play a fundamental role in the socioecology of
several species of non-human primates, such as rhesus monkeys (Macaca
mulatta). While neurophysiological experiments examining the
representation of SSVs in the non-human primate cortex have a long and
rich history, there have not been any studies, to date, that have tested
how neurons code the abstract qualities of SSVs. This grant proposal
examines this important issue by testing how neurons in the
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPFC) code the information conveyed by
SSVs. The experiments in this grant proposal test the following general
hypothesis: vPFC neurons are preferentially modulated by the information
conveyed by SSVs and not by their spectrotemporal properties. In
EXPERIMENT #1A, we test whether vPFC neurons code the information
conveyed by SSVs in superordinate (e.g., food versus nonfood) or
subordinate (high-quality food or low-quality food) categories. In
EXPERIMENT #1B, we test the hypothesis that vPFC neurons respond to
transitions between SSVs based on presentation context and the
information conveyed by the SSVs. Together, these studies will provide a
more comprehensive understanding of the role that the vPFC has in
representing the information conveyed by the SSVs and the role of the
PFC, in general, in the representing information in category-dependent
formats.
Thesaurus Terms:
animal communication behavior, neural information processing, prefrontal
lobe /cortex, vocalization
Macaca mulatta, behavioral /social science research tag
Institution: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
Office of Sponsored Projects
HANOVER, NH 03755
Fiscal Year: 2005
Department: PSYCHOLOGICAL & BRAIN SCIS
Project Start: 15-APR-2005
Project End: 31-MAR-2007
ICD: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
IRG: COG
Selectivity for the Spatial and Nonspatial Attributes
of Auditory Stimuli in the Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex
Yale E. Cohen,1,2
Brian E. Russ,1
Gordon W. Gifford, III,1
Ruwan Kiringoda,1
and Katherine A. MacLean1
1Department
of Psychological and Brain Sciences and 2Center
for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
03755
Subjects
Two female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were used in these
experiments. Both monkeys (weighing between 8.0 and 9.0 kg) were trained
on both of the tasks described in this study. All surgical, recording,
and training sessions were in accordance with the National Institutes of
Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were
approved by the Dartmouth Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
Surgical procedures
Surgical procedures were conducted under aseptic, sterile conditions
using general anesthesia (isoflurane). These procedures were performed
in a dedicated surgical suite operated by the Animal Resource Center at
Dartmouth College.
In the first procedure, titanium bone screws were implanted in the
skull, and a methyl methacrylate implant was constructed. A
Teflon-insulated, 50 gauge, stainless-steel wire coil was also implanted
between the conjunctiva and the sclera; the wire coil allowed us to
monitor the monkey's eye position (Judge et al., 1980 ). Finally, a
head-positioning cylinder (FHC-S2; Crist Instruments, Hagerstown, MD)
was embedded in the implant. This cylinder connected to a primate chair
and stabilized the monkey's head during behavioral training and
recording sessions.
After the monkeys learned the behavioral tasks (see below), a craniotomy
was performed, and a recording cylinder (ICO-J20; Crist Instruments) was
implanted. This surgical procedure provided chronic access to the vPFC
for neurophysiological recordings.
Experimental setup
Behavioral training and recording sessions were conducted in a darkened
room with sound-attenuating walls. The walls and floor of the room were
covered with anechoic foam insulation (Sonomatt; Auralex, Indianapolis,
IN). When inside the room, the monkeys were seated in the primate chair
and placed in front of a stimulus array; because the room was darkened,
the speakers producing the auditory stimuli were not visible to the
monkeys. The primate chair was placed in the center of a 1.2 m diameter,
two-dimensional, magnetic coil (CNC Engineering, Seattle, WA) that was
part of the eye position-monitoring system (Judge et al., 1980 ). Eye
position was sampled with an analog-to-digital converter (PXI-6052E;
National Instruments, Austin, TX) at a rate of 1.0 kHz. The monkeys were
monitored during all sessions with an infrared camera |
Please email: YALE E. COHEN,
yec@dartmouth.edu to protest the inhumane use of animals in this
experiment. We would also love to know about your efforts with this
cause:
saen@saenonline.org
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Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals have
been excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore research
facility reports do not include these animals. As a result of this
situation, a blank report, or one with few animals listed, does not mean
that a facility has not performed experiments on non-reportable animals. A
blank form does mean that the facility in question has not used covered
animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigs,
sheep, goats, etc.). Rats and mice alone are believed to comprise over 90%
of the animals used in experimentation. Therefore the majority of animals
used at research facilities are not even counted.
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