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Rhesus Monkey Experiment

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An unavoidable classic human emotion is Fear. This is the reason why people run away when they see a snake or scream when they are being attacked by a thief. Even though human beings have found ways to cope with their fears, others would feel uncountable anxiety situations that others will see as normal, like playing a particular sports or meeting new people. Steven E. Shelton and his colleague at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are trying to identify the processes in the brain that regulate fear and its associated behaviors. The only problem is that obtaining information in human being is extremely difficult, so the main focus has been towards the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), who goes through the same physiological and psychological developmental stage as human beings. If we can examine the nature and operation of the neural circuits that modulates fear in the rhesus monkey, then we will be able to pinpoint the brain processes that causes anxiety and fear in human beings and counteract it. …show more content…
Their experiment was mainly focused on monkeys at an age where they could match defensive behaviors to specific situations. This is important because, it would mean that the regions of brain that regulates fear and fear-related responses matures during this time. The experiment consists in separating infant monkeys between 6 to 12 months from their mother and isolating them individually in a no-eye-condition in a cage and then a human being was placed in front of the cage to stare at the animal with a neutral face

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