Marmosets

Chaoyi Zhang presents a method for observing distributed social-brain networks in awake marmosets during natural social interaction. Prefrontal, cingulate, striatal, thalamic and amygdala circuits are implicated in autism and other neuropsychiatric conditions, but have rarely been measured together during genuine primate social behavior. The platform replaces part of the skull with an acoustically transparent implant, enabling volumetric functional ultrasound measurements of cortical and subcortical activity at approximately 150-micrometre resolution. A whole-brain vascular reference and autom

Animals move their head and eyes as they explore and sample the visual environment. Previous studies have demonstrated neural correlates of head and eye movements in rodent primary visual cortex (V1), but the sources and computational roles of these signals are unclear. We addressed this by combining measurement of head and eye movements with high density neural recordings in freely moving mice. V1 neurons responded primarily to gaze shifts, where head movements are accompanied by saccadic eye movements, rather than to head movements where compensatory eye movements stabilize gaze. A variety o

Communication is an inherently interactive behavior involving the coordinated exchange of social signals between two or more individuals. Studies exploring the neural basis of communication in the primate brain have traditionally focused on how these signals are processed or produced, leaving many facets of vocal behavior largely unexplored. One challenge has been limitations of traditional analyses for quantifying the often variable, dynamic nature of natural communication behaviors, such as conversational exchanges. Here we recorded the activity of single neurons in prefrontal and premotor c

Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are small South American monkeys which are being increasingly becoming adopted as animal models in neuroscience. Knowledge about the marmoset visual system has developed rapidly over the last decade. But what are the comparative advantages, and disadvantages involved in adopting this emerging model, as opposed to the more traditionally used macaque monkey? In this talk I will present case studies where the simpler brain morphology and short developmental cycle of the marmoset have been key factors in facilitating discoveries about the anatomy and physiology of th