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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Government Grants Promoting Cruelty to Animals

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

CHARLES E. CONNOR - Primate Testing - 2005

See Original Application - PDF file

Torture Apparatus Used For This Experiment Shown Below

 

Grant Number: 5R01EY016711-02
Project Title: Neural coding of complex 3D shape
PI Information: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHARLES E. CONNOR,  [email protected] 

Abstract: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):
Our ability to live within and interact with a world composed of 3D objects depends largely on our spectacular capacity for visual shape perception. This is what makes vision so critical to our health, happiness, and survival. The long-term goal of this project is to understand 3D object perception by discovering the neural code for complex 3D shape in the primate ventral visual pathway. After decades in which neurophysiological studies of object representation in the monkey ventral pathway have focused exclusively on 2D shape, recent reports indicate a robust representation of 3D shape, although the nature of that representation remains completely unknown. We will address this issue using the same techniques we have recently applied to produce the first quantitative descriptions of complex 2D shape representation. We will combine dense, parametric exploration of 3D shape space with intensive computational analysis to test hypotheses about 3D shape coding dimensions, tuning functions, integration mechanisms, and population coding principles. The stimuli will be complex, smooth (spline-based), abstract, randomly generated 3D shapes. Successive generations of random shape stimuli will be determined with a genetic algorithm, using neural responses as feedback to guide sampling toward the most relevant regions of 3D shape space. The resulting data will be used to test hypotheses about coding dimensions relating to 2D boundary contours, 3D surface patches, and 3D medial axis shape, all described in terms of absolute and relative position, 2D and 3D orientation, 2D and 3D curvature, curvature orientation, and curvature derivative. We will test tuning functions ranging from simple Gaussians to complex manifolds describing highly specific part shapes. We will test a variety of mechanisms for integrating information across object parts, ranging from single-part tuning through multi-part tuning to holistic tuning for overall object shape. The hypotheses surviving from these individual cell analyses will then be tested at the population coding level.

Thesaurus Terms:
neural information processing, neuropsychology, visual cortex, visual perception
temporal lobe /cortex
Macaca mulatta, behavioral /social science research tag, single cell analysis

Institution: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
W400 Wyman Park Building
BALTIMORE, MD 212182680
Fiscal Year: 2006
Department: NONE
Project Start: 15-SEP-2005
Project End: 31-AUG-2009
ICD: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE
IRG: ZRG1

J Neurophysiol 94: 2726-2737, 2005

Quantitative Characterization of Disparity Tuning in Ventral Pathway Area V4

David A. Hinkle and Charles E. Connor

Department of Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Submitted 1 April 2005; accepted in final form 20 June 2005

Stereoscopic visual stimuli were generated on an Octane workstation (Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA) using OpenGL 1.1 graphics libraries. Images for the left and right eyes were presented in alternate frames. Separate presentation of images for the two eyes was accomplished using a NuVision stereoscopic liquid crystal shutter (MacNaughton, Beaverton, OR) attached to the monitor, and passive circular-polarized lenses placed immediately in front of the monkey's eyes. We compensated for cross talk between the two eye channels by adding to each eye's image a low-contrast, negative version of the opposite eye image. Contrast levels of the negative image for each stimulus color were adjusted manually and verified with a luminance meter. This procedure produced stimuli that were free of any appreciable interference between eye channels.

The scleral coil of fine insulated wire was surgically implanted beneath the conjunctiva of the eye (Judge et al. 1980 ). The coil was attached to the sclera with instant adhesive (Loctite, Rocky Hill, CT) in three locations to prevent slippage. A head-restraint post and recording chamber were implanted in separate surgical procedures. All procedures conformed to the National Institutes of Health and USDA guidelines and were approved by The Johns Hopkins University Animal Care and Use Committee.

Please email: CHARLES E. CONNOR, [email protected] to protest the inhumane use of animals in this experiment. We would also love to know about your efforts with this cause: [email protected]

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Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals have been excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore research facility reports do not include these animals. As a result of this situation, a blank report, or one with few animals listed, does not mean that a facility has not performed experiments on non-reportable animals. A blank form does mean that the facility in question has not used covered animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.). Rats and mice alone are believed to comprise over 90% of the animals used in experimentation. Therefore the majority of animals used at research facilities are not even counted.

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