By: Molly Shoffner
If you’ve ever had a class in the basement of Miller Hall, you’ve likely heard rumors of the supposed monkey experiments conducted behind undisclosed doors in that same basement, possibly even the classroom where you learned about them. While the urban myth has circulated Western campus for many years, the truth behind it has been buried over the years.
Western student Al Hartt first heard of the experiments recently during a class he took in the basement of Miller Hall. “All I know is that there were supposedly caged monkeys in the basement of Miller being used for psychology research in the 70s. … I believe it – Western has a lot of skeletons in the closet, including monkey skeletons.”
The basis of the myth can be traced back to a story featured in the Spring 1972 issue of the Klipsun magazine titled DR. PRIM and his PRIMATES. The article, written by Debbie Hudson, highlighted Western psychology professor Dr. Merle Prim and the research he had been conducting on rhesus macaques in his lab in the basement of Miller Hall.
Prim conducted the research in hopes of finding a “greater understanding of the brain’s relationship to emotions, and emotion’s relationship to our lives,” by studying the hypothalamus [the part of the brain that is intended to keep the body in homeostasis] and cardiovascular changes within the monkeys.
The rhesus monkeys, who resided in metal cages in one of the labs of in the basement of Miller Hall, supposedly made “excellent test subjects because they are a very aggressive, active monkey.”
The article laid out Dr. Prim’s research experimentation in three stages:
Stage 1: The Training Period
The monkey learns to respond to a panel – Stimuli appear, such as colored lights, and the monkey learns to make a choice by pressing levers.
During this stage, monkeys were placed within an insulated training chamber and presented with simple vision stimuli tests while strapped in a chair within the insulated chamber. While in the chamber, the monkeys couldn’t hear outside noises and could only see the visual stimuli: a panel in front of them that flashed different colored lights. This conditioned the monkeys to associate a red light on the panel with an anticipated shock, causing them to exhibit behaviors such as fear and escape tactics.
With this observed behavioral change came a rise in the monkey’s heartbeat, blood pressure, and blood flow [a physiological sign of distress]. Prim defined these physiological changes as “operational definitions of emotions,” which Hudson described as “the key to Prim’s research.”
Stage 2: The Split-Brain Operation
The two hemispheres of the monkey’s brain are surgically divided.
[Content Warning: The following procedure descriptions are graphic, but necessary to understanding the myth. Particularly graphic descriptions within the original article are omitted here without omitting necessary information.]
The operation would proceed as follows:
- A hole was drilled through the roof of the monkey’s mouth to reach the crossing of the two optic nerves between the hemispheres.
- Through the microscope, Prim would look down the narrow tunnel he incised and sever half of the nerve fibers so that information would only go to one hemisphere.
- Prim would then remove the top of the monkey’s skull to expose the brain and gently slide a piece of narrow metal between the divided hemispheres to separate them.
- Prim would then cut three massive fiber tracts between the separated hemispheres which allow information to transfer from one hemisphere to the other.
“The result is a monkey with two brains, to be forever so,” said Hudson in the article.
The monkey would be up and running around within ten hours after the operation.
The article quoted Dr. Prim as saying, “You can’t tell that the animal has had a split-brain operation by looking at him. He can use his arms, his legs, he can jump around; in fact he is normal, except that he has some problems that only appear by very sophisticated testing.”
To be specific, the monkeys were left half-blind in each eye but could still see with the remaining vision.
Stage 3: Post-Operation Training
Prim tests for the effects of the split-brain operation by resuming training.
After the monkey had recovered, training would resume, this time with one of the monkey’s eyes covered, conditioning the uncovered eye to respond to different colored lights. The operation, by removing communication between the hemispheres, meant that one eye could be taught to respond to a red light on the panel while the other could be taught to respond to a green light.
By uncovering both eyes, the monkeys were shown conflicting stimuli that caused initial confusion. Eventually, the monkeys would be trained to take in the conflicting information independently with both eyes open, meaning they would learn to control one hemisphere with one eye, and the other hemisphere with the other.
While the persisting myth refers to this research being conducted in the 1970s, there is evidence of it continuing through the following decades. With the rise in animal rights activism, Western students and individuals outside of the research began to question the ethics behind the experiments and the conditions in which the monkeys were placed.
The ethics and conditions of the animal labs, which also held rabbits, rats, crayfish, and chickens at some point, were protested many times throughout the 80s and 90s, culminating in a raid by the Animal Liberation Front in 1999. Dr. Prim kept an air of secrecy around them, not allowing the monkeys to be photographed or any students or faculty outside of those aiding him in conducting the research behind the door. While the restrictions on who was allowed in the lab were likely due to maintaining the controlled environment, the secrecy around it spurred further criticism. By 1991, Prim had yet to publish any information on the findings of his research since 1976.
Western’s animal research labs have been under federal regulations since the 70s when the Animal Care and Use Committee was established. Still, WWU behavioral neuroscience professor Dr. Josh Kaplan, who is currently studying the effects of CBD on developing brains by conducting research with young mice, says the regulations have evolved since then to eliminate the possibility of loose differentiations.
In 2001, Prim ended his monkey research after heavy backlash and break-ins in the years preceding, and the Miller Hall animal labs officially closed in 2009 with the opening of the Academic Instructional Center (AIC), where the psychology department and animal research labs are held today. While Miller Hall was initially opened in 1943 as the Campus School building, the AIC was built with the purpose of housing the animal labs, where Kaplan says the space is better for both the animals and the researchers. After the psychology department was moved to the AIC, Miller Hall underwent a renovation and reopened in 2011.
Kaplan says there is no longer any research utilizing non-human primates on Western’s campus due to a lack of proper facilities and scientific interest in studies that might utilize monkeys. Today, the only animals used in research at Western are mice, rats, flies, and worms, according to Kaplan.
As for where the monkeys went, no one’s entirely sure, but a 1984 article from The Front said, “When a series of experiments are concluded, primates are donated to a zoo, traded to other research facilities or, if injured, given an overdose of anesthetic.”
So, there may be monkey skeletons locked away in the closets of the Miller Hall basement after all.
Sources:
Western Front Historical Collection, accessed through Western Libraries Archives:
Western Front – November 9th, 1976
Western Front – May 19th, 1981
Western Front – January 24th, 1984
Western Front – February 28th, 1984
Western Front – April 24th, 1987
Western Front – January 26th, 1988