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Ethical aspects and safety

Informed consent


Not applicable - no experiments on humans are included.

Data protection issues


Not applicable - no experiments on humans are included.

Use of animals


We will use different complementary animal models (rodents, lamprey and a few primates) to be able to carry out this project on neuronal coding. In the planning and performance of all animal experiments, careful consideration of the 3Rs - Reduction, Replacement, Refinement, will be undertaken. The experiments in WP 1a, 1b and 2a will be carried out on slices of striatum and associated regions for microcircuit analyses (lamprey and rodents). In this case the animals are kept under anaesthesia, when the brain is removed, and subsequently brain slices are cut on a vibratome. In WP 3a experiments are carried out on rats with chronically implanted tetrodes to study striatal neurones in the behaving animal (see below), and similar experiments are carried out on a limited number of primates in WP 3b. The fact that modelling techniques are applied extensively (WP 1c, 2b, 4) to test different hypothesis based on the different experiments will minimize the number animals that are needed for the entire project. It is obvious that when neuronal coding in assemblies/microcircuits is the target for the analysis, cell- or tissue cultures cannot be used but only tissue in which the entire or parts of the neural systems analysed remain intact.

Number of animals planned to use

  • 1500 rodents (mice and rats)
  • 250 lampreys
  • 3 monkeys

Transgenic animals

Some experiments in WP 1 and WP 2 will be performed on transgenic mice already developed in other laboratories to provide a general-purpose source. They are generated to have the dye GFP expressed in certain subtypes of Medium spiny neurons, but it does not in any way influence the behaviour of the animals.

Chronic recordings of striatal neurons during movement in rodents

Rats will be cared for by the Division of Laboratory Animal Medicine veterinary staff, under supervision of the M.I.T. Committee on Animal Care, following Massachusetts and Federal guidelines. The animal facility, in which the rats will be housed, is run by the veterinary staff. In addition to daily visits by the veterinary staff, members of our laboratory will carefully monitor all rats used. We regularly seek the advice of the veterinary staff in choosing the optimal anaesthetics and physiological maintenance protocols. All protocols used have the approval of the Committee on Animal Care and are in compliance with the recommendations on the Panel on Euthanasia of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Chronic recordings of striatal neurons during behaviour in primates

All experimental procedures will be carried out according to the Hebrew University guidelines for the use and care of laboratory animals in research (see also below). The experimental procedures will be proposed for approval to the Hebrew university's institutional animal care and use committee. Following approval the experiments will be supervised by the veterinarians of the animal facility and the institutional animal care and use committee. The committee address is
  • Ms. Miri Sheinfeld
    Institutional animal care and use committee
    The Hebrew University - Hadassah medical school
    POBox 12272, Jerusalem, Israel 91120
    Phone: +972-2- 67588138, e-mail: mirish@savion.cc.huji.ac.il
    website: http://animals.huji.ac.il/

Human embryonic stem cells


Not applicable - no experiments on human embryonic stem cells are included.

Principles expressed in national and international texts or codes of practices


The research fulfils in all cases legal or ethical requirements of the member/associated states in which it is carried out
  • UK (PB): All experimental procedures on animals require approval by a local Ethics Committee. Furthermore, all experimental scientists are/must be covered by a so-called Personal License, issued by the British Home Office, which must cover all relevant experimental procedures on animals. Finally, the scientific programme, provided it involves work on animals, is subject to approval by the British Home Office and will be covered by a so-called Project License.
  • Israel (HB): All experiments on animals are approved by the Hebrew University Committee for Animal Use. The committee is administered by a rotating body of full professors of the Hebrew university as well as the institute Veterinarian and follow guidelines of the National Institute for Health. Inspections are carried out by state officials approximately every 2 years. The committee approves the treatment of animals, euthanasia procedures, daily care protocol and experiments as well as the number of animals must be justified. The facilities include sterile rooms, isolation rooms, standard care as well as separate units for transgenic animals.
  • Sweden (SG, AL): All projects are approved by an ethical committee - The Northern Stockholm Ethical committee, which deals with the applications from the Karolinska institute. It is headed by a judge, and the members of the committee are to 50% researchers/veterinarians and 50% laymen.
  • United States (MIT, AG). All animal-related research conducted at MIT is approved by MIT's Committee on Animal Care, which ensures compliance with the US Animal Welfare Act, US Public Health Service policy, the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and ordinances of the City of Cambridge. This federally-mandated Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee is composed of 13-15 members, balanced between scientists and non-scientist, with at least one member from outside MIT. Animal procurement, housing, husbandry and veterinary care is under supervision of MIT's Division of Comparative Medicine, which is accredited by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International.

CONSIDERATION OF GENDER ASPECTS


All participants have since long considered gender issues in the management of their laboratories. Ann Graybiel is a prominent leader in neuroscience and she, as well as the other participants, has trained a number of women at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

In the management of the consortium gender issues will be reviewed and discussed as an important item on the steering group meetings. Special attention will be paid to ensure that extra efforts will be performed to try and recruit more women into the project specifically in senior and training/dissemination positions. In most of the universities of the consortium, a gender balance at the PhD student level has been reached - at the Karolinska institute the number of female PhD students actually exceeds that of males. In the extended research division of the coordinator there is a larger number of female post docs than males. Our aim within the entire consortium is to reach a gender balance.