I was appalled to learn about experiments on macaque monkeys conducted by Harvard Medical School that study visual processing in the brain and maternal deprivation.

These experiments have inflicted terrible suffering on monkeys by separating infants from their mothers, then depriving young monkeys of sight for the duration of a year, and subjecting them to invasive brain surgeries, and more.

The experiments are so atrocious that primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall and other experts are urging an end to federal funding and hundreds of scientists are asking the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to retract the publication. 

Notably, these experiments may be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and corresponding regulations. The principal investigator (PI) and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) failed to abide by various provisions that mandate alternatives to animals be thoroughly investigated if an experiment will cause more than momentary pain and distress in animals.

Had the PI and IACUC conducted a thorough search for alternatives they would have found a plethora of non-animal technologies that can deliver superior, human-relevant data without using animals.

For example, in a current study funded by the National Eye Institute, human participants and multimodal brain imaging are being used to investigate anatomical and functional components of facial recognition from childhood to adulthood.

In another study, scientists are investigating the neuropathology of face processing seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by comparing it to brain abnormalities seen in patients with acquired prosopagnosia (face blindness) following a stroke. This will aid in the development of biomarkers and treatment targets for prosopagnosia.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is being used to measure oxygenation in newborn babies’ brains to learn more about visual processing in infant development. In another, fNIRS is being used to study why some individuals with autism avoid eye contact. 

In yet another study, scientists are using magnetoencephalography and computational models in human participants to measure the real-time brain processes that convert the appearance of a face into the recognition of an individual. The study will help locate the exact point in the brain at which the visual perception system breaks down in disorders with impaired facial recognition.

These are just some of the many non-animal alternatives that scientists can use to study how the brain processes facial recognition, many of which are already yielding new and vital information about human vision.

I implore you to put an immediate end to these ruthless and pointless experiments on monkeys that can be replaced with cutting-edge human-based research and thereby maintain compliance with federal regulations that require researchers to minimize animal use.