Photo: Macaque in a neural recording experiment (Courtesy of Spiegel.de)The laboratory of Tai Sing Lee imprisons and subjects macaques to the abuses of testing using invasive, surgically implanted brain cell recording devices among other things. Sing's computer science background allows him to also work on the engineering and studying of devices in order to find more ways to use these things on the animals trapped behind the walls of Mellon Institute and animals caged in other laboratories. The animals in studies at the Lee lab are forced to undergo invasive procedures to implant brain cell recording devices in their brains and skulls. These procedures occur on top of the suffering of living their lives alone in laboratory cages. While the brain does not feel pain from the surgeries, the skull and head most definitely do, making these procedures very stressful and painful for the animals.
In one study, the Lee lab gave macaque monkeys surgeries to implant brain cell recording devices in their brains and skulls [1]. They recorded their neural activity while they watched random dots on a screen. This article did not say how long the animals were given to recover, how long they were trained if at all, how they were restrained, or what happened to them after the experiment was finished.
In another study, Lee and colleagues compared two invasive procedures for recording from the brains of both paralyzed macaques and paralyzed cats [2]. Some of the animals had single-unit (which record from one brain cell at a time) devices surgically implanted in their skulls and brains while others had multi-unit devices implanted in their skulls and brains. In this particular study, Sing and colleagues analyzed these cells with the ultimate goal of studying invasive ways to use nonhuman animals in research, rather than to seek alternatives to this research. This publication did not say what happened to the animals when the experiment was finished.
In another experiment, the Lee lab surgically implanted neural recording devices in the skulls and brains of macaque monkeys as well as implanted coils in their eyes. They then had the animals perform various computer tasks which required them to act while their brain activity was being recorded within their heads. This article also did not say how long the animals were given to recover, how long they were trained if at all, how they were restrained, or what happened to them after the experiment was finished.
Tai-Sing Lee can be contacted in the following ways:Office: Mellon Institute Rm 115, 4400 5th Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412-268-1060
Email: tai@cnbc.cmu.edu
Have information on an animal laboratory that you would like to share? Email us about it. We will protect your privacy.
References
[1] JM Samonds, BR Potetz, & TS Lee. (2006). Neurophysiological Evidence of Cooperative Mechanisms for Stereo Computation.
[2] Ryan C. Kelly, Matthew A. Smith, Jason M. Samonds, Adam Kohn, A. B. Bonds, J. Anthony Movshon, & Tai Sing Lee. (2007). Comparison of Recordings from Microelectrode Arrays and Single Electrodes in the Visual Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(2). 261–264.
[3] Matthew A. Smith, Ryan C. Kelly, and Tai Sing Lee. (2007). Dynamics of Response to Perceptual Pop-Out Stimuli in Macaque V1. J Neurophysiol. 98. 3436–3449.
