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Calapai A, Pfefferle D, Cassidy LC, Nazari A, Yurt P, Brockhausen RR, Treue S. A Touchscreen-Based, Multiple-Choice Approach to Cognitive Enrichment of Captive Rhesus Macaques ( Macaca mulatta). Animals (Basel) 2023; 13:2702. [PMID: 37684966 PMCID: PMC10486349 DOI: 10.3390/ani13172702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 08/18/2023] [Accepted: 08/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Research on the psychological and physiological well-being of captive animals has focused on investigating different types of social and structural enrichment. Consequently, cognitive enrichment has been understudied, despite the promising external validity, comparability, and applicability. As we aim to fill this gap, we developed an interactive, multiple-choice interface for cage-mounted touchscreen devices that rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) can freely interact with, from within their home enclosure at the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the German Primate Center. The multiple-choice interface offers interchangeable activities that animals can choose and switch between. We found that all 16 captive rhesus macaques tested consistently engaged with the multiple-choice interface across 6 weekly sessions, with 11 of them exhibiting clear task preferences, and displaying proficiency in performing the selected tasks. Our approach does not require social separation or dietary restriction and is intended to increase animals' sense of competence and agency by providing them with more control over their environment. Thanks to the high level of automation, our multiple-choice interface can be easily incorporated as a standard cognitive enrichment practice across different facilities and institutes working with captive animals, particularly non-human primates. We believe that the multiple-choice interface is a sustainable, scalable, and pragmatic protocol for enhancing cognitive well-being and animal welfare in captivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonino Calapai
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz-Science Campus Primate Cognition, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Dana Pfefferle
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz-Science Campus Primate Cognition, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Lauren C Cassidy
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz-Science Campus Primate Cognition, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Population and Behavioral Health Services, California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95817, USA
| | - Anahita Nazari
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Pinar Yurt
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz-Science Campus Primate Cognition, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Ralf R Brockhausen
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
| | - Stefan Treue
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Leibniz-Science Campus Primate Cognition, 37077 Goettingen, Germany
- Faculty for Biology and Psychology, Goettingen University, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
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Congratulations to Animal Cognition on its 50th birthday! Some thoughts on the last 50 years of animal cognition research. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:13-23. [PMID: 36264405 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01706-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 09/11/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
In this article, the author reflects on some of the key issues that have arisen in comparative cognition and the role and impact of the journal Animal Cognition through its first 25 years by pretending to look back at this period from the year 2047. Successes within comparative cognition are described and the role that Animal Cognition has played in the growth of comparative cognition are discussed. Concerns are presented about issues that affect the opportunities that researchers have to work with nonhuman species and to produce good comparative cognitive science. Prescriptions for what the author hopes will happen next also are offered all in the lens of a prospectively imagined retrospective on this field.
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Cabrera-Moreno J, Jeanson L, Jeschke M, Calapai A. Group-based, autonomous, individualized training and testing of long-tailed macaques ( Macaca fascicularis) in their home enclosure to a visuo-acoustic discrimination task. Front Psychol 2022; 13:1047242. [PMID: 36524199 PMCID: PMC9745322 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/08/2022] [Indexed: 09/10/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent years, the utility and efficiency of automated procedures for cognitive assessment in psychology and neuroscience have been demonstrated in non-human primates (NHP). This approach mimics conventional shaping principles of breaking down a final desired behavior into smaller components that can be trained in a staircase manner. When combined with home-cage-based approaches, this could lead to a reduction in human workload, enhancement in data quality, and improvement in animal welfare. However, to our knowledge, there are no reported attempts to develop automated training and testing protocols for long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), a ubiquitous NHP model in neuroscience and pharmaceutical research. In the current work, we present the results from 6 long-tailed macaques that were trained using an automated unsupervised training (AUT) protocol for introducing the animals to the basics of a two-alternative choice (2 AC) task where they had to discriminate a conspecific vocalization from a pure tone relying on images presented on a touchscreen to report their response. We found that animals (1) consistently engaged with the device across several months; (2) interacted in bouts of high engagement; (3) alternated peacefully to interact with the device; and (4) smoothly ascended from step to step in the visually guided section of the procedure, in line with previous results from other NHPs. However, we also found (5) that animals' performance remained at chance level as soon as the acoustically guided steps were reached; and (6) that the engagement level decreased significantly with decreasing performance during the transition from visual to acoustic-guided sections. We conclude that with an autonomous approach, it is possible to train long-tailed macaques in their social group using computer vision techniques and without dietary restriction to solve a visually guided discrimination task but not an acoustically guided task. We provide suggestions on what future attempts could take into consideration to instruct acoustically guided discrimination tasks successfully.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jorge Cabrera-Moreno
- Cognitive Hearing in Primates (CHiP) Group, Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences, Biophysics and Molecular Biosciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate CenterLeibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for Auditory Neuroscience and InnerEarLab, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Lena Jeanson
- Cognitive Hearing in Primates (CHiP) Group, Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Marcus Jeschke
- Cognitive Hearing in Primates (CHiP) Group, Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate CenterLeibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for Auditory Neuroscience and InnerEarLab, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Antonino Calapai
- Cognitive Hearing in Primates (CHiP) Group, Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory, German Primate CenterLeibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz-Institute for Primate Research, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany
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