Open-Source, Low Cost, Free-Behavior Monitoring, and Reward System for Neuroscience Research in Non-human Primates

Local field potentials and single unit dynamics in motor cortex of unconstrained macaques during different behavioral states

Different sleep stages have been shown to be vital for a variety of brain functions, including learning, memory, and skill consolidation. However, our understanding of neural dynamics during sleep and the role of prominent LFP frequency bands remain incomplete. To elucidate such dynamics and differences between behavioral states we collected multichannel LFP and spike data in primary motor cortex of unconstrained macaques for up to 24 h using a head-fixed brain-computer interface (Neurochip3). Each 8-s bin of time was classified into awake-moving (Move), awake-resting (Rest), REM sleep (REM), or non-REM sleep (NREM) by using dimensionality reduction and clustering on the average spectral density and the acceleration of the head. LFP power showed high delta during NREM, high theta during REM, and high beta when the animal was awake. Cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling typically showed higher coupling during NREM between all pairs of frequency bands. Two notable exceptions were high delta-high gamma and theta-high gamma coupling during Move, and high theta-beta coupling during REM. Single units showed decreased firing rate during NREM, though with increased short ISIs compared to other states. Spike-LFP synchrony showed high delta synchrony during Move, and higher coupling with all other frequency bands during NREM. These results altogether reveal potential roles and functions of different LFP bands that have previously been unexplored.

A Novel, Automated, and Real-Time Method for the Analysis of Non-Human Primate Behavioral Patterns Using a Depth Image Sensor

By virtue of their upright locomotion, similar to that of humans, motion analysis of non-human primates has been widely used in order to better understand musculoskeletal biomechanics and neuroscience problems. Given the difficulty of conducting a marker-based infrared optical tracking system for the behavior analysis of primates, a 2-dimensional (D) video analysis has been applied. Distinct from a conventional marker-based optical tracking system, a depth image sensor system provides 3-D information on movement without any skin markers. The specific aim of this study was to develop a novel algorithm to analyze the behavioral patterns of non-human primates in a home cage using a depth image sensor. The behavioral patterns of nine monkeys in their home cage, including sitting, standing, and pacing, were captured using a depth image sensor. Thereafter, these were analyzed by observers’ manual assessment and the newly written automated program. We confirmed that the measurement results from the observers’ manual assessments and the automated program with depth image analysis were statistically identical.

Wireless recording from unrestrained monkeys reveals motor goal encoding beyond immediate reach in frontoparietal cortex

System neuroscience of motor cognition regarding the space beyond immediate reach mandates free, yet experimentally controlled movements. We present an experimental environment (Reach Cage) and a versatile visuo-haptic interaction system (MaCaQuE) for investigating goal-directed whole-body movements of unrestrained monkeys. Two rhesus monkeys conducted instructed walk-and-reach movements towards targets flexibly positioned in the cage. We tracked 3D multi-joint arm and head movements using markerless motion capture. Movements show small trial-to-trial variability despite being unrestrained. We wirelessly recorded 192 broad-band neural signals from three cortical sensorimotor areas simultaneously. Single unit activity is selective for different reach and walk-and-reach movements. Walk-and-reach targets could be decoded from premotor and parietal but not motor cortical activity during movement planning. The Reach Cage allows systems-level sensorimotor neuroscience studies with full-body movements in a configurable 3D spatial setting with unrestrained monkeys. We conclude that the primate frontoparietal network encodes reach goals beyond immediate reach during movement planning.

Mymou: A low-cost, wireless touchscreen system for automated training of nonhuman primates

Training nonhuman primates (NHPs) to perform cognitive tasks is essential for many neuroscientific investigations, yet laboratory training is a time-consuming process with inherent limitations. Habituating NHPs to the laboratory staff and experimental equipment can take months before NHPs are ready to proceed to the primary tasks. Laboratory training also necessarily separates NHPs from their home-room social group and typically involves some form of restraint or limited mobility, and data collection is often limited to a few hours per day so that multiple NHPs can be trained on the same equipment. Consequently, it can often take a year to train NHPs on complex cognitive tasks. To overcome these issues, we developed a low-cost, open-source, wireless touchscreen training system that can be installed in the home-room environment. The automated device can run continuously all day, including over weekends, without experimenter intervention. The system utilizes real-time facial recognition to initiate subject-specific tasks and provide accurate data logging, without the need for implanted microchips or separation of the NHPs. The system allows NHPs to select their preferred reward on each trial and to work when and for as long as they desire, and it can analyze task performance in real time and adapt the task parameters in order to expedite training. We demonstrate that NHPs consistently use this system on a daily basis to quickly learn complex behavioral tasks. The system therefore addresses many of the welfare and experimental limitations of laboratory-based training of NHPs and provides a platform for wireless electrophysiological investigations in more naturalistic, freely moving environments.

Can Neuroscience Assist Us in Constructing Better Patterns of Economic Decision-Making?

We draw on outstanding research (Sanfey et al., 2006; McCabe, 2008; Bernheim, 2009; Camerer, 2013; Radu and McClure, 2013; Declerck and Boone, 2016) to substantiate that neuroeconomics covers the investigation of the biological microfoundations of economic cognition and economic conduct, attempts to prove that a superior grasp of how choices are made brings about superior expectations regarding which options are selected, preserves the strictness of economic analysis in defining value-based decision, and associates imaging techniques with economic pattern to explain how individuals decide on a strategy taking into account various possible choices. Neuroeconomics is adequately prepared to regulate the notion of how choices are determined by mental states. The position that will be elaborated in this article is that neuroeconomic patterns are enabled and enhanced in descriptive capacity by psychological outcomes and substantiated in biological processes. Advancement in neuroeconomics takes place when outcomes from distinct procedures are coherent with an ordinary mechanistic clarification of what generates choice, construed by a computational pattern. We will develop this point further by proving that economics improves the concerted effort of neuroeconomics by using its observations in the various results that may stem from the planned and market interplays of diverse participants, and via a series of accurate, explicit, mathematical patterns to construe such interplays and results. Neuroeconomics experiments employ a mixture of brain imaging/stimulation tests advanced in the cognitive neurosciences and microeconomic systems/game theory tests advanced in the economic sciences. Our analyses indicate that neuroeconomics aims to employ the supplementary input gained from brain investigations, associated with the decision maker's selection, with the purpose of better grasping the cogitation process and to utilize the outcomes to enhance economic patterns.

The Cognitive Information Effect of Televised News

The purpose of this review is to summarize the key findings which prove that the biased perceptions of viewers may provide an inaccurate image of the informational validity of televised news. The news may generate distorted recollections of what occurred in particular reported events if displayed routines influence viewers not to pay attention to the essential features of a narrative. Elaborating on Fiske and Hartley (2010), Zelizer (2010), and Gunter (2015), we indicate that the character of the news setting has altered and individuals' news consumption routines have changed in adapting to media advancements. The news may be undergone at various psychological stages by news publics. Televised news may transmit information undeviatingly to publics that may (not) be committed successfully to memory. Our paper shows that individuals' skills to handle information that is displayed in a linguistic configuration are influenced by their abilities in the utilization of certain symbol systems that are employed to represent notions and meanings. Televised news may shape what individuals grasp, influence their perceptions, convictions, and views regarding prevailing events and matters, and transmit knowledge and interpretation. If news stories can be jotted down in a linguistic style that sidesteps making needless processing demands and captivate news users by facilitating them to make connections with former knowledge, they may be more worthy of note and more edifying. We conclude that news narratives present a cognitive demanding task to individuals, displaying novel information regarding evolving events in a multifarious format. Broadcast news exhibits intricate contents, displaying configurations that employ excessively the cognitive abilities for information processing of viewers.