Prins Noeline W, Pohlmeyer Eric A, Debnath Shubham, Mylavarapu Ramanamurthy, Geng Shijia, Sanchez Justin C, Rothen Daniel, Prasad Abhishek
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, United States.
Division of Veterinary Resources, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, United States.
J Neurosci Methods. 2017 Jun 1;284:35-46. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2017.04.004. Epub 2017 Apr 8.
The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has been proposed as a suitable bridge between rodents and larger primates. They have been used in several types of research including auditory, vocal, visual, pharmacological and genetics studies. However, marmosets have not been used as much for behavioral studies.
Here we present data from training 12 adult marmosets for behavioral neuroscience studies. We discuss the husbandry, food preferences, handling, acclimation to laboratory environments and neurosurgical techniques. In this paper, we also present a custom built "scoop" and a monkey chair suitable for training of these animals.
The animals were trained for three tasks: 4 target center-out reaching task, reaching tasks that involved controlling robot actions, and touch screen task. All animals learned the center-out reaching task within 1-2 weeks whereas learning reaching tasks controlling robot actions task took several months of behavioral training where the monkeys learned to associate robot actions with food rewards.
We propose the marmoset as a novel model for behavioral neuroscience research as an alternate for larger primate models. This is due to the ease of handling, quick reproduction, available neuroanatomy, sensorimotor system similar to larger primates and humans, and a lissencephalic brain that can enable implantation of microelectrode arrays relatively easier at various cortical locations compared to larger primates.
All animals were able to learn behavioral tasks well and we present the marmosets as an alternate model for simple behavioral neuroscience tasks.
普通狨猴（Callithrix jacchus）已被提议作为啮齿动物和大型灵长类动物之间合适的桥梁。它们已被用于多种类型的研究，包括听觉、发声、视觉、药理学和遗传学研究。然而，狨猴在行为研究中的应用并不多。
在此，我们展示了对12只成年狨猴进行行为神经科学研究训练的数据。我们讨论了饲养管理、食物偏好、处理方式、对实验室环境的适应以及神经外科技术。在本文中，我们还展示了一种定制的“铲子”和一把适合训练这些动物的猴椅。
这些动物接受了三项任务的训练：4项目标中心外伸臂任务、涉及控制机器人动作的伸臂任务以及触摸屏任务。所有动物在1 - 2周内学会了中心外伸臂任务，而学习控制机器人动作的伸臂任务则需要数月的行为训练，在此过程中猴子学会将机器人动作与食物奖励联系起来。
我们提议将狨猴作为行为神经科学研究的一种新型模型，以替代大型灵长类动物模型。这是因为其易于处理、繁殖迅速、具备可用的神经解剖结构、感觉运动系统与大型灵长类动物和人类相似，并且其平滑脑在不同皮质位置植入微电极阵列相对大型灵长类动物更容易。
所有动物都能够很好地学习行为任务，我们将狨猴作为简单行为神经科学任务的替代模型进行展示。
