Websites with lay-articles of Platt’s research
http://dukemednews.duke.edu/news/article.php?id=9209 (gambling research)
http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=8409 (gambling & autism in same research...if that even makes sense!)
http://members.aol.com/mlucen/050131_monkeyface.htm (this is the strangest one of all......how stargazing & autism are linked thru research in monkeys)
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-23977.html (alzheimers research)
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/story?id=623557&page=2 (monkey's obsession with Hollywood-type'celebraties')
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/story?id=623557&page=1
PLATT’S SURGICAL PROCEDURES
Michael L. Platt, Dept. of Neurobiology, DukeUniversity
The following is the surgical procedures section, quoted in its entirety, from Michael Platt’s article entitled “Visual and Saccade-Related Activity in Macaque Posterior Cingulate Cortex”. This surgical procedure is referenced in articles published at later dates. This quote can be found in “The Journal of Neurophysiology” 92: p. 3057, 2004.
"A head restraint prosthesis and scleral search coil (Fuchs and Robinson 1966; Judge et all 1980) were implanted in an initial aseptic surgical procedure performed under isoflurane anesthesia. First, the dorsal rostrum of the skull was exposed and six 2.5-mm holes were drilled through the skull with standard orthopedic surgical instruments. These holes were then tapped for 3.5-mm fine-thread orthopedic cortical bones screws. Sterile orthopedic bone cement (Biomet; Palacos) was used to bond a stainless steel head post (Crist Instruments) lower to just above the skull surface to 6 titanium screws (Zimmer) inserted into the tapped holes. the Eflon-insulated scleral search coil (Cooner Wire AS634) was implanted beneath the conjunctiva, passing just rostral to the insertions of the extraocular muscles (Judege et al. 1980). The wire exited the conjunctiva temporally, exited the orbit subdermally, was embedded in the bone cement that formed the restraint prosthesis, and terminated in a gold and plastic electrical connector (Winchester Electronics/Litton). After surgery, animals received analgesics for a minimum of 3 days. Antiobitoc prophylaxis was initiated intraoperatively and continued for 7-10 days. Animals were given a 4- to 6-week recovery period after surgery.
A second aseptic surgical procedure was performed once animals could reliably execute al behavioral tasks used in the study. A stainless steel recording chamber (Crist Instruments) was positioned stereotaxically perpendicular to the horizontal plane over a 15-mm craniotomy and bonded to 4-6 additional orthopedic bone screws and the original implant with orthopedic bone cement. The recording chamber was centered stereotaxically at position 0,0, the intersection of the midsagittal and interaural planes (cf. Olson et. al. 1996). Postoperatively, animals received analgesics for a minimum of 3 days and antibiotics for 7-10 days. The recording chamber was kept clean with daily antibiotic washes and sealed with replaceable sterile Cilux caps. Single-cell recording experiments began after a 1-wk postoperative period."
