Ryan Amy M, Freeman Sara M, Murai Takeshi, Lau Allison R, Palumbo Michelle C, Hogrefe Casey E, Bales Karen L, Bauman Melissa D
The UC Davis MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, United States.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, United States.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2019 Mar 5;13:39. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00039. eCollection 2019.
Eye-tracking methods measure what humans and other animals visually attend to in the environment. In nonhuman primates, eye tracking can be used to test hypotheses about how primates process social information. This information can further our understanding of primate behavior as well as offer unique translational potential to explore causes of or treatments for altered social processing as seen in people with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. However, previous methods for collecting eye-tracking data in nonhuman primates required some form of head restraint, which limits the opportunities for research with respect to the number of or kinds of primates that can undergo an eye-tracking study. We developed a novel, noninvasive method for collecting eye tracking data that can be used both in animals that are difficult to restrain without sedation as well as animals that are of different ages and sizes as the box size can be adjusted. Using a transport box modified with a viewing window, we collected eye-tracking data in both New () and Old World monkeys () across multiple developmental time points. These monkeys had the option to move around the box and avert their eyes from the screen, yet, they demonstrated a natural interest in viewing species-specific imagery with no previous habituation to the eye-tracking paradigm. Provided with opportunistic data from voluntary viewing of stimuli, we found that juveniles viewed stimuli more than other age groups, videos were viewed more than static photo imagery, and that monkeys increased their viewing time when presented with multiple eye tracking sessions. This noninvasive approach opens new opportunities to integrate eye-tracking studies into nonhuman primate research.
眼动追踪方法可测量人类和其他动物在环境中的视觉注意力。在非人类灵长类动物中，眼动追踪可用于检验有关灵长类动物如何处理社会信息的假设。这些信息有助于我们进一步了解灵长类动物的行为，还具有独特的转化潜力，可用于探索神经发育障碍（如自闭症谱系障碍和精神分裂症）患者社会处理改变的原因或治疗方法。然而，以前在非人类灵长类动物中收集眼动追踪数据的方法需要某种形式的头部固定，这限制了可进行眼动追踪研究的灵长类动物的数量和种类。我们开发了一种新颖的、非侵入性的收集眼动追踪数据的方法，该方法既可以用于难以在不使用镇静剂的情况下进行约束的动物，也可以用于不同年龄和大小的动物，因为盒子大小可以调整。我们使用一个带有观察窗的运输箱，在多个发育时间点收集了新大陆猴和旧大陆猴的眼动追踪数据。这些猴子可以在箱子里四处走动并将视线从屏幕上移开，然而，它们对观看特定物种的图像表现出自然的兴趣，并且之前没有适应眼动追踪范式。通过自愿观看刺激物获得机会性数据，我们发现幼猴比其他年龄组观看刺激物的次数更多，观看视频的次数多于静态照片图像，并且猴子在进行多次眼动追踪实验时会增加观看时间。这种非侵入性方法为将眼动追踪研究整合到非人类灵长类动物研究中开辟了新的机会。
