The laboratory procedure in which a part or the whole of the central nervous system of an experimental animal (such as a frog) is destroyed, usually by inserting a probe through the foramen magnum, in preparation for physiological or pharmacological experiments.
Destruction of the central nervous system by the piercing of brain or spinal cord, as in vivisection. This is done on experimental animals to render them insensible to pain and to inhibit controlling effects of the central nervous system during research and experimentation.