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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
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
JEFFREY D. SCHALL - Primate Testing - 2006
Grant Number: 5R01EY008890-16
Project Title: SACCADE TARGET SELECTION-FRONTAL CORTEX
PI Information: PROFESSOR JEFFREY D. SCHALL,
[email protected]
Abstract: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):
The long-term goal of our research is to understand how the visual
system decides where to look. The activity of multiple neurons will be
monitored simultaneously in monkeys performing visual search tasks
designed to dissociate visual processing from saccade preparation. The
frontal eye field will be studied because it is situated anatomically to
sample the outcome of visual processing to orient attention and produce
motor commands to orient gaze. Patterns of neural activity will be
analyzed to evaluate specific hypotheses about how visual information is
encoded for target selection among pools of neurons (Aim 1), to describe
how sensory-motor mapping occurs between visual and saccade neurons (Aim
2) and to determine how short-term and long-term experience influences
saccade target selection (Aim 3). Understanding how the brain selects
visual stimuli for action is necessary to understand the causes of
impaired visual behavior.
Thesaurus Terms:
brain electrical activity, frontal lobe /cortex, neural information
processing, saccade, visual cortex, visual tracking experience, neuron,
neurophysiology, visual field, visual perception, visual stimulus Macaca
mulatta, single cell analysis
Institution: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Medical Center, NASHVILLE, TN 372036869
Fiscal Year: 2006
Department: PSYCHOLOGY
Project Start: 01-JAN-1991
Project End: 31-MAY-2010
ICD: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE
IRG: CVP
J Neurophysiol 66: 530-558, 1991
Neuronal activity related to visually guided saccadic
eye movements in the supplementary motor area of rhesus monkeys
J. D. Schall
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge 02139
Task
By the use of operant conditioning techniques, the monkeys were
trained to perform a fo/no-go visual tracking task. The monkeys were
water deprived in their home cage and were rewarded with apple juice.
The animals’ fluid intake was closely monitored; if on any day they did
not perform the task until satiated, supplemental fluid was given.
Surgery
All surgical procedures were accomplished with the animal under
barbiturate anesthesia (pentobarbital sodium, 30 mg/kg) and with the use
of sterile surgical techniques. Initially, a scleral search coil was
implanted suconjunctivally and a stainless steel post to restrain the
head was attached to the skull with acrylic cement. Once the task was
mastered to a criterion of 90% correct, a recording chamber was
implanted over a midline craniotomy that exposed SMA. |
Please email: JEFFREY D.
SCHALL,
[email protected] to protest the inhumane use of animals in this
experiment. We would also love to know about your efforts with this
cause:
[email protected]
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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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