I was horrified to learn that the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative is funding cruel and irrelevant monkey experiments at Duke University and Yale University.

These experiments exploit qualities in monkeys that are seen in humans, such as sensitivity, altruism and empathy towards other monkeys, and have nothing to do with autism.

In these cruel, invasive experiments, monkeys’ heads and bodies are fully confined in restraint chairs. Electrodes are surgically placed deep into the brain to record neural activity.  

Brain recordings are made while monkeys are tested as they respond to images on a screen that are linked to a reward of a squirt of fruit juice. In hundreds of trials, these experiments examine whether the monkey will give a juice reward to himself or his partner or both.

The researchers claim they are studying the brain mechanism behind kindness, and how this can apply to potential therapies in people with autism.

 Please stop funding these cruel experiments on monkeys at Duke and Yale Universities and shift all Simons Foundation funding to human-centered, non-animal research.