These monkeys were in a pitiful state, suffering the horrific effects of brain damage to artificially induce a stroke. The surgery involved slicing open the scalp and then using an electric saw to cut around their skull. Long-term effects of the brain damage included physical disabilities, learning and memory impairment and weight loss. However, no one can really know the true cost to the monkeys' mental and emotional well being such as confusion, frustration, anxiety, fear and mood alterations.

"I did just a 'look-see' experiment & one day I wore the glove [used to catch the monkeys with] & you should have seen the rise in blood pressure. It was incredible..."
Researcher

Science

The use of monkeys in brain research is not only morally indefensible, we believe it also to be scientifically flawed. Monkeys do not suffer the same diseases that humans do, yet this research attempts to use the marmosets as 'models' for humans. Symptoms of diseases are artificially induced in the monkeys through the deliberate infliction of brain damage. This involves trauma, distress and suffering to the hundreds of monkeys used in such research.

Modern, non-animal research methods such as brain imaging and cell culture testing are not only humane but also offer biologically relevant, credible methodologies.

Yet the brain is a complex and dynamic organ and we believe it is naive to attempt to understand its workings with these brutal methods, let alone try to find cures for major illnesses.

The BUAV is totally committed to medical progress and cures for human diseases such as stroke and Parkinson's Disease but we want to see a different way; scientific progress that is not only humane but more effective. Ending animal experiments does not mean an end to medical research. There are already a number of non-animal techniques covering various aspects of this research and the potential for more with adequate resources and the political will.

Following are the key scientific criticisms of the use of marmosets in the brain research carried out at Cambridge University along with examples of non-animal methods that could be used instead:

Stroke experiments

Animals have been used as 'models' for human stroke for 150 years but the research is fraught with many difficulties. In humans stroke occurs in people with underlying illness. Artificially inducing strokes in otherwise healthy animals by subjecting them to highly invasive surgery will never replicate the human condition. Furthermore, the marmoset's brain measures only 20 millimetres across so even tiny variations in the site of blockage of the artery would result in different magnitudes of stroke. Variability between individual animals would make it difficult to compare treatments.

Researchers themselves admit that not a single effective neuroprotective drug has been developed in animal models in the last 10 years. The drug Clomethiazole appeared to be effective in similar primate experiments. However, the development of Clomethiazole was recently stopped as it was shown to have no beneficial effect in human patients.

Parkinson's Disease experiments

The marmoset 'model' bears only a simplistic comparison to the enormous complexity of real PD. Marmosets do not naturally suffer from PD. In this research, the symptoms of PD are artificially induced chemically in marmosets. In human PD, symptoms progress slowly, are of unknown cause and there is no spontaneous recovery, whereas the marmosets' symptoms are immediate in response to the toxin and there is partial recovery over time. Also, patients with PD have characteristic structures in their brains known as Lewy bodies, but these do not appear in marmosets.

Cognition experiments

The term cognition refers to mental processes such as thinking, learning, remembering and judging. This project involved basic research into the functions of the brain. The aim was to find out the roles of various regions of the brain and how these regions connect to and affect one another.

The human and marmoset brains are not identical. There are likely to be significant differences in the number, location and importance of different types of brain cells and fibres in marmosets and in humans. This has been demonstrated by imaging experiments in human volunteers. Consequently, results from marmoset experiments are unlikely to be directly applicable to humans.

Alternatives:

Examples of alternatives to monkeys in brain research currently available:

• There are a range of non-invasive brain imaging techniques currently available to researchers. These techniques can be used on patients and compared with healthy volunteers, identifying which areas of the brain are working at any given time and how they interact. This kind of information can give researchers information about the relationship between the structure and the function of the human brain.
• A technique known as TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) uses strong magnetic fields to decrease the activity of specific areas of the brain. This is a non-invasive method which can be used to create temporary virtual lesions in healthy volunteers.
• Post-mortem tissues and cell cultures of brain or blood vessels from patients are all useful to researchers trying to unravel the detailed sequence of events involved in Parkinson's Disease and stroke and/or the action of neuroprotective drugs.
• Population studies may help to identify the causes of neurological diseases such as diet or exposure to chemicals and so highlight potential preventative strategies.
• Intensive study of volunteers who have suffered brain damage to specific areas can reveal more about the human brain than experiments on another species.

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