Marmosets: A Neuroscientific Model of Human Social Behavior

Abstract

The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has garnered interest recently as a powerful model for the future of neuroscience research. Much of this excitement has centered on the species’ reproductive biology and compatibility with gene editing techniques, which together have provided a path for transgenic marmosets to contribute to the study of disease as well as basic brain mechanisms. In step with technical advances is the need to establish experimental paradigms that optimally tap into the marmosets’ behavioral and cognitive capacities. While conditioned task performance of a marmoset can compare unfavorably with rhesus monkey performance on conventional testing paradigms, marmosets’ social cognition and communication are more similar to that of humans. For example, marmosets are amongst only a handful of primates that, like humans, routinely pair bond and care cooperatively for their young. They are also notably pro-social and exhibit social cognitive abilities, such as imitation, that are rare outside of the Apes. In this review, we describe key facets of marmoset natural social behavior and demonstrate that emerging behavioral paradigms are well suited to isolate components of marmoset cognition that are highly relevant to humans. These approaches generally embrace natural behavior and communication, which has been rare in conventional primate testing, and thus allow for a new consideration of neural mechanisms underlying primate social cognition and communication. We anticipate that through parallel technical and paradigmatic advances, marmosets will become an essential model of human social behavior, including its dysfunction in nearly all neuropsychiatric disorders.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of auditory cortical fields in awake marmosets

“…Although marmosets have recently garnered significant interest as a neuroscientific model (Mitchell et al, 2014; Miller, 2017; Miller et al, 2016), this species has a long history as an important model in the auditory system (Bendor & Wang, 2005; Bendor & Wang, 2008; Sadagopan & Wang, 2009; Zhou & Wang, 2012). By using high-resolution (7T) fMRI to identify distinct auditory cortical fields in awake marmosets, we show that this technique can complement existing neurophysiological experiments to expand our understanding of the primate auditory system.…”

“…Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a complementary technique that can be used to facilitate neurophysiological research by rapidly characterizing multiple areas of the brain simultaneously and identifying patterns of responses that might not be readily identifiable with single-unit recordings ( e.g ., Tsao et al, 2006), including the auditory system ( e.g ., Perrodin et al, 2011). While this approach has been successfully employed in the rhesus monkey (Joly et al, 2012; Ortiz-Rios, 2015; Ortiz-Rios, 2017; Perrodin et al, 2011), its application to marmosets, a rapidly emerging model system in neuroscience (Miller et al, 2015; Miller et al 2016; Miller 2017; Bendor & Wang, 2008; Eliades & Miller, 2016), is likely to yield similarly important insights ( e.g ., Hung et al, 2015). Because of the small size of the marmoset brain and acoustic interference prevalent in fMRI environments, however, it remains unclear whether distinct fields of the species auditory cortex could be distinguished with this method.…”

Optogenetic manipulation of neural circuits in awake marmosets

“…Marmosets have emerged as a key model for studying primate neuronal function (Miller et al 2016), in part driven by the opportunity to apply modern gene-editing techniques in a primate brain to investigate numerous questions pertaining to functional neural circuitry (Belmonte et al 2015;Sasaki et al 2009). In this study we tested the suitability of this nonhuman primate species for manipulating neural circuits using optical stimulation techniques.…”

The BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Consortium: Lessons Learned toward Generating a Comprehensive Brain Cell Atlas

“…The mouse is the genetically most tractable mammalian experimental model and can serve as the evolutionally more distant outgroup. We recommend the NHP be macaque, the most commonly studied NHP in neuroscience, and/or marmoset, an emerging NHP genetic model system (Izpisua Belmonte et al, 2015; Miller et al, 2016). A complete inventory of cell types should include information about the defining features, proportions, and spatial distributions of all cell types, and this information must be provided in the context of a framework, including nomenclature, common across species.…”