Monkey research probed

B8 S.F. EXAMINER FrL.Feb. 3, 1984 Monkey research probed From Page Bl said, but physicians have in the past found ways to use early results In diagnosing brain disorders. And as elements of basic research, the experiments contribute to the essential foundations of science. ' Despite the complexity of the question at hand and the brain itself Lisberger has devised a rela-' lively simple model to provide some answers. He studies how monkeys learn eye movements. Because the monkey's eye is so similar to the human eye, the results can be widely extrapolated. To record precise eye movements, the monkeys are outfitted with four bolts in their skulls, which are used to hold the head steady during the two or three hours of experiments a day. A loop of wire is mounted on the eyeball, which allows scientists to determine exactly where the eye points at a particular moment. In some more elaborate experiments, a hole is cut in the monkey's skull, and a fine wire is slowly Inserted into the brain to record individual nerve impulses. In some cases, the wires carry a small pulse of electricity to simulate a nerve signal. If human brains are any indication, the monkey cannot feel the probe. It is withdrawn at the end of each daily experiment, Lisberger said. ' To understand how monkeys learn certain eye movements, they are outfitted with a cumbersome set of glasses that magnify the scenery. Within two or three days, the monkey has learned to compensate for this skewed world. By tracing nerve activity in the brain, the researchers are homing in on exactly where this memory is stored. During some of these experiments, however, the monkey must be restrained 24 hours a day so the goggles stay in place. Although Lisberger is searching for alternatives, at the moment these monkeys are trained to get into a device called a "chair." This is essentially a large plate with a hole in a center for the monkey's neck. The monkey has normal use of its limbs and can turn around, but it cannot move forward or backward, m f; '. A. x7 STEVEN LISBERGER OF UC He gave the monkeys names and it cannot touch its face. "We prefer never having to chair a monkey," Splnelli said. "We do It only when there is no alternative." In experiments to date, Lisberger has chaired monkeys for up to five days. He has a proposal, still awaiting approval of the campus committee on animal research, to chair monkeys for four to six weeks unless he can devise another way of holding the glasses permanently in place. After the monkeys have performed in three or four experiments, they are killed with apparently painless lethal injections and their brains are dissected. "You cant find the site at which learning occurs unless you can look in the brain," Lisberger said. One of the major problems with the chair is that the animals appear to suffer from boredom. To ease that problem, the university has hired an animal behaviorist, who is devising computer games for the monkeys to play when they are not in the lab. What the monkeys think of all this is impossible to say. The university's committee on animal research, which is charged with seeing that animals are not treated cruelly, defines this to mean that animals should not be terrified or In pain any worse than humans tolerate during medical procedures. The committee is composed of a retired lawyer, a nurse faculty member active in the humane society, a graduate student, an animal caretaker and the campus vet. Want Ad Supermarket Phone 777-7777

The San Francisco Examiner

Monkey research probed

Monkey research probed

The San Francisco Examiner