Lordy I shouldn't be on here I should be making the pharmaceutical companies happy
BUT.
I'm on lunch break anyways. Even though I spent most of yesterday and half of today writing up an abstract for a research proposal, that, if pleases the faculty, can be used for my qualifying exam.
ANYWAYS.
Here is a crazy animal experiment I've been wanting to write about.
It's called "social defeat", and it is by far the cruelest experiment I have ever seen- not in terms of physical trauma, this is psychological torture.
Retired breeding male mice are sold very cheap from mice companies. They are thus naturally aggressive, used to defending their territory. We will order a good number of them - close to a hundred, then screen them. A fraction make the "cut"- that is, they attack a submissive, helpless mouse fast.
Then they are further screened, to pick out the ones that will not only attack immediately, but continue to attack a wounded, bleeding mouse that has already given up the fight.
And those are the "bully mice"- they will be used in the experiment.
The experiment goes as follows: submissive, calm, inbred strains of mice are housed right next to the bullies- a plastic barrier with holes in it is placed in a cage. The bully lives on one side, the helpless mouse on the other, constantly exposed to scary pheromones from the other mouse.
Then to business. The bully is placed in the submissive mouse's side for 10 minutes. And, since it has been selected to do so, it beats the shit out of the other mouse. And I mean, beats the shit out of it. The submissive mouse trys to run away, cowers, shows the submissive posture. And, since it has been selected to do so, the bully mouse continues to attack. There's blood, squealing, holy shit. You see blood smears on the walls of the plastic cages and the fight goes on. Smaller mice sometimes die.
After the ten minutes is up, the plastic barrier is replaced. Sometimes when you pick up the submissive mouse out of the fight the bully just clamps down and you pick them both up.
The next day the process is repeated, except that the submissive mice are rotated through the cages so that they spend each night in a different cage, and each fight they see a different bully. So they are housed alone (they are naturally very social animals), and they can't ever get adjusted to their environment.
By the end of the 10-day experiment, the submissive mice no longer squeal for help, get into the submissive posture right away, and have this crazy, dead, look in their eyes. You can tell they have been severely traumatized.
Using this technique, it is possible to elicit depression. We (scientists, not us in particular) have found that mutation in certain genes causes delayed recovery from such trauma, for example. Some mice also exhibit Resilience- a characteristic also found in some abused children- which needs to be uncovered so that it might be given to those abused children who don't have it, for example. It is how we study depression, as well.
So it is justified, because there's lots of child abuse and suicide and mental disorders going on, but its also pretty horrific.
more to come! I hope to generate interest in science by these entries. It probably violates all kinds of rules.
But I'd rather violate some stupid rules than violate my own First Amendment.
Hooray! And RESPECT for the mice who suffer, suffer, suffer, daily, so that we might lessen our own.
Kalisa
I'm on lunch break anyways. Even though I spent most of yesterday and half of today writing up an abstract for a research proposal, that, if pleases the faculty, can be used for my qualifying exam.
ANYWAYS.
Here is a crazy animal experiment I've been wanting to write about.
It's called "social defeat", and it is by far the cruelest experiment I have ever seen- not in terms of physical trauma, this is psychological torture.
Retired breeding male mice are sold very cheap from mice companies. They are thus naturally aggressive, used to defending their territory. We will order a good number of them - close to a hundred, then screen them. A fraction make the "cut"- that is, they attack a submissive, helpless mouse fast.
Then they are further screened, to pick out the ones that will not only attack immediately, but continue to attack a wounded, bleeding mouse that has already given up the fight.
And those are the "bully mice"- they will be used in the experiment.
The experiment goes as follows: submissive, calm, inbred strains of mice are housed right next to the bullies- a plastic barrier with holes in it is placed in a cage. The bully lives on one side, the helpless mouse on the other, constantly exposed to scary pheromones from the other mouse.
Then to business. The bully is placed in the submissive mouse's side for 10 minutes. And, since it has been selected to do so, it beats the shit out of the other mouse. And I mean, beats the shit out of it. The submissive mouse trys to run away, cowers, shows the submissive posture. And, since it has been selected to do so, the bully mouse continues to attack. There's blood, squealing, holy shit. You see blood smears on the walls of the plastic cages and the fight goes on. Smaller mice sometimes die.
After the ten minutes is up, the plastic barrier is replaced. Sometimes when you pick up the submissive mouse out of the fight the bully just clamps down and you pick them both up.
The next day the process is repeated, except that the submissive mice are rotated through the cages so that they spend each night in a different cage, and each fight they see a different bully. So they are housed alone (they are naturally very social animals), and they can't ever get adjusted to their environment.
By the end of the 10-day experiment, the submissive mice no longer squeal for help, get into the submissive posture right away, and have this crazy, dead, look in their eyes. You can tell they have been severely traumatized.
Using this technique, it is possible to elicit depression. We (scientists, not us in particular) have found that mutation in certain genes causes delayed recovery from such trauma, for example. Some mice also exhibit Resilience- a characteristic also found in some abused children- which needs to be uncovered so that it might be given to those abused children who don't have it, for example. It is how we study depression, as well.
So it is justified, because there's lots of child abuse and suicide and mental disorders going on, but its also pretty horrific.
more to come! I hope to generate interest in science by these entries. It probably violates all kinds of rules.
But I'd rather violate some stupid rules than violate my own First Amendment.
Hooray! And RESPECT for the mice who suffer, suffer, suffer, daily, so that we might lessen our own.
Kalisa