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It's the sort of claim routinely made by animal rights activist: medical researcher Michael Stryker must be some sort of monster because he performed experiments that involve drilling into the brains of kittens and then sewing their eyelids shut. But Stryker, who was targeted by the COalation Against Vivisection as part of their protests against the 34th International Union of Physiological Sciences world congress, wasn't having any of it and publicly defended the importance of his research.
Stryker's research was designed to answer a basic question: does sleep deprivation affect the way the brain organizes its visual systems during the first few weeks after birth. Stryker told The Dominion that prior to his researcher, there was no definite evidence either way on this issue.
Stryker chose to study kittens because the brain structures that control site in cats are very similar to those of human beings. The study found that, in fact, there were several periods shortly before and after birth when parts of the brains re-assembled themselves. The brain, then, turned out to be extremely sensitive to changes during the first couple months of life.
This finding led to changes in the way that surgeries to correct congenital eye problems are scheduled. Previously such research was delayed until an infant was four to six months old. As a result of the new information about the sensitivity of the brain in the first couple months of life, such surgeries are now starting to be conducted in the first weeks after birth and proving to be more successful at correcting the problem.
Source:
Researcher defends experiments on kittens. The Dominion (Wellington), August 25, 2001.