Abstract
Macaque monkeys are widely used to study vision. In the traditional approach, monkeys are brought into a lab to perform visual tasks while they are restrained to obtain stable eye tracking and neural recordings. Here, we describe a novel environment to study visual cognition in a more natural setting as well as other natural and social behaviors. We designed a naturalistic environment with an integrated touchscreen workstation that enables high-quality eye tracking in unrestrained monkeys. We used this environment to train monkeys on a challenging same-different task. We also show that this environment can reveal interesting novel social behaviors. As proof of concept, we show that two naive monkeys were able to learn this complex task through a combination of socially observing trained monkeys and solo trial-and-error. We propose that such naturalistic environments can be used to rigorously study visual cognition as well as other natural and social behaviors in freely moving monkeys.
Highlights
Macaque monkeys are highly intelligent and social animals with many similarities to humans, due to which they are widely used to understand cognition and its neural basis (Passingham, 2009; Roelfsema and Treue, 2014; Buffalo et al, 2019)
Animals must be housed in a naturalistic environment to engage in natural, social behaviors while at the same time repeatedly access complex cognitive tasks as required for the rigorous study of behavior and cognition
We demonstrate several novel technical advances: (1) We show that, even though the monkeys can freely move to approach or withdraw from the workstation, their gaze can be tracked in real-time with high fidelity whenever they interact with the touchscreen for juice reward
Summary
Macaque monkeys are highly intelligent and social animals with many similarities to humans, due to which they are widely used to understand cognition and its neural basis (Passingham, 2009; Roelfsema and Treue, 2014; Buffalo et al, 2019). In the traditional approach for studying vision, monkeys are brought into a specialized lab where the head is restrained to obtain non-invasive eye tracking and minimize movement artifacts during neural recordings. This approach prevents a deeper understanding of vision in more natural, unrestrained settings. Studying vision in a more natural setting requires overcoming two major challenges. Animals must be housed in a naturalistic environment to engage in natural, social behaviors while at the same time repeatedly access complex cognitive tasks as required for the rigorous study of behavior and cognition. The design principles for such naturalistic environments as well as standard procedures to maximize animal welfare are well understood
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