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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Government Grants Promoting Cruelty to Animals

University of California, Los Angeles, CA

JOAQUIN M. FUSTER - Primate Testing - 2006

Grant Number: 5R01MH072641-02
Project Title: INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO CORTICAL COGNITIVE NETWORKS
PI Information: PROFESSOR JOAQUIN M. FUSTER,  [email protected]
Phone: (310) 825-0247 or (310) 825-5528

Abstract:
This project has two major objectives. The first is to identify structural and functional properties of cognitive neuronal networks in cortex of association (prefrontal and posterior parietal) during working memory. The second objective is largely methodological: to substantiate the coupling between neural activity and hemodynamic changes in working memory.

Both objectives will be pursued in the monkey by the combined use of four minimally invasive and behavior-compatible recording methods: near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), surface field-potential (FP) recording, local field-potential (LFP) recording, and unit-activity recording. NIRS signals and surface FPs will be recorded simultaneously with epidural probes. Unit activity and local field potentials (LFPs) will also be recorded simultaneously by means of transdural microelectrodes.

Based on certain assumptions of cognitive network architecture and the spatial resolution of each method, the four methods will be used in combination to test three specific hypotheses of neural activation and hemodynamic change in the regions of interest during the performance of two working-memory tasks, spatial delayed response (DR) and non-spatial delayed matching to sample (DMS).

The analysis will focus on the neural and hemodynamic activity during the retention of a sensory stimulus in working memory. NIRS, FP, and unit data will be correlated with each of the variables most relevant to the specific hypotheses to be tested: cortical location, stimulus or memorandum, task, time of trial, and level of correct performance.

In the study of neural-hemodynamic coupling in cognitive function, special emphasis will be placed on the correlations between NIRS signals and electrical manifestations of cell discharge. These correlations are expected to provide crucial information on the neuronal basis of functional imaging signals, such as those obtained by BOLD fMRI, in human cognition.

Thesaurus Terms:

brain mapping, cognition, parietal lobe /cortex, prefrontal lobe /cortex, short term memory brain circulation, brain electrical activity, electrical potential, hemodynamics, neural transmission, performance, stimulus /response Macaca mulatta, behavioral /social science research tag, infrared spectrometry, microelectrode

Institution:
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
Office of Research Administration, LOS ANGELES, CA 90095
Fiscal Year: 2006
Department: NONE
Project Start: 09-SEP-2005
Project End: 31-JUL-2010
ICD: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
IRG: COG 


Cerebral Cortex   Volume 17, Supplement 1  Pp. i77-i87

Distributed and Associative Working Memory

Yong-Di Zhou, Allen Ardestani and Joaqu�n M. Fuster
Semel
Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Materials and Methods

The experiments were conducted on 4 adult male rhesus monkeys weighing between 8 and 12 kg. Two of the animals and their databases were used in previous studies (Zhou and Fuster 1996 2000 2004). The animals were individually housed and maintained on a diet of chow and fruit. Fluid intake was restricted before testing sessions. All experiments were carried out under strict adherence to an animal-use protocol periodically reviewed and approved by the University of California, Los Angeles, Chancellor's Animal Research Committee and in accord with the animal care and experimentation guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals), the US Department of Agriculture, and the Society for Neuroscience. 

Behavioral Paradigms

In a sound-attenuated and electrically isolated chamber, the animals were trained to perform the 2 WM tasks described below, one with tactile memoranda and the other with visual memoranda. Figure 1 depicts the behavioral testing apparatus, the stimuli or memoranda, and the sequence of events in each of the 2 tasks.



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Figure 1. (A) Diagram of the 2 WM tasks on which the subjects and their cortical cells were tested. In the HH task (top), the subject touches the invisible sample, 1 of 2 objects (rods) differing by a surface feature (orientation of parallel ridges or texture). The subject must memorize that feature through a delay period because at the end of it he is presented with the 2 objects simultaneously and must choose by touch the one that matches the sample. In the VH task (bottom), the subject views an icon of vertical or horizontal stripes and must memorize it through the delay in order to choose by touch 1 of 2 objects with ridges oriented in the same direction as the stripes of the sample icon. (B) Order of events in a task trial. In HH, the trial begins with a click signaling that the sample object is accessible to touch; the animal extends the hand toward the object and briefly palpates it, after which he returns the hand to its resting location. After the delay, a second click signals the accessibility of the objects for the choice that, if correct, is followed by reward. In VH, the trial begins with the presentation of the icon. After the delay, the correct tactile choice is that of the object matching in ridge orientation the icon's stripe orientation.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 August 15; 97(17): 9777�9782. PMCID:  Copyright � 2000, The National Academy of Sciences Physiology

Visuo-tactile cross-modal associations in cortical somatosensory cells

Yong-Di Zhou* and Joaqu�n M. Fuster
Neuropsychiatric Institute and Brain Research Institute, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024

*
To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] .
Edited by Larry R. Squire, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved June 19, 2000
Received January 28, 2000.

Methods

Three adult rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were the experimental subjects for this study. They had been used in studies of short-term memory (14, 15). Animal care and surgical procedures were approved by the Animal Research Committee at the University of California, Los Angeles. The animals were trained to perform a visuo-haptic memory task in a fully automated, computer-controlled apparatus. During the task, the animal was seated in a primate chair facing a panel with a rectangular screen at about eye level for visual display (30 � 50 mm) and a rectangular opening at about waist level for access to tactile test objects (Fig. (Fig.1). ).

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Figure 1
(Upper) V-H TASK. Schematic diagram of the visuo-haptic cross-modal task. (Upper Left) Monkey watching the visual cue (icon) in the center of the panel, the operating hand resting on the handrest. (The opening that gives manual access to the test objects is occluded.) (Upper Right) Events in a trial of the task labeled sequentially. Cell discharge is analyzed in three trial epochs (time spans indicated): visual cue, delay, and haptic choice. In this task, the animal rests his hand on the handrest continuously except for the choice period. In the sample trial displayed, the visual cue is the vertical icon, and the animal correctly matches the cue with a pull on the vertical rod. (Lower) H-H TASK. (Lower Left) A simplified drawing of the test apparatus for the haptic-haptic unimodal task. The monkey palpates the sample object. (Lower Right) Schematic diagram of the events in a trial. The animal touches the vertical rod during the sample period, and after the delay pulls it in the correct choice.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 August 15; 97(17): 9777�9782.

The distance between the eyes of the animal and the screen was about 20 cm. A pair of visual images (icons) was used. These were black and white patterns of parallel stripes (3.5 mm apart). The stripes were vertical in one icon and horizontal in the other. The opening for the tactile test objects was normally closed by a shutter. When the shutter was opened (downward sliding), the animal could reach out through the opening and manipulate the objects behind the panel (the objects were at all times out of sight). The test objects were two vertical cylindrical rods of identical dimensions (axis, 150 mm and diameter, 19 mm), but different direction of parallel ridges on their surface (ridges 6 mm apart). One rod had the ridges along the axis of the cylinder (vertical ridges) and the other around its circumference (horizontal ridges). When not in the act of reaching and grasping the objects, the performing hand of the animal rested on a rounded pedal (handrest) in the center of the lower edge of the opening. The other hand was at all times restricted from access to the test objects by a plate attached to the primate chair. A displacement-sensitive transducer was connected to the spring-suspended seat of the animal. Signals from this transducer were recorded and used for control of body movements.

After the monkey had undergone behavioral training (performance criterion above 75% correct), two cylindrical pedestals for microelectrode recording were implanted bilaterally on the parietal cortex, leaving the dura intact. The pedestals were intended to be placed over hand representation areas of anterior parietal cortex (Brodmann's areas 3a, 3b, 1, and 2). The implantation was guided by cranial landmarks, our own experience with previous implants, and a stereotaxic map (courtesy of T. P. Pons, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC). In one of the animals, a pair of EOG (electrooculogram) electrodes was implanted in the periorbital bone for monitoring horizontal eye movements.

For a recording session, the animal was placed in the testing apparatus with its head fixed. Single-unit activity was recorded extracellularly with Elgiloy microelectrodes (impedance 1�2 megaohms). Spike records were selected for analysis on the basis of stability, uniformity, and clear isolation from background noise and the spikes from other units.


To protest the inhumane use of animals in this experiment
Please email:  JOAQUIN M. FUSTER, [email protected] or
Phone: (310) 825-0247 or (310) 825-5528  or
Mail to: Joaquin M. Fuster
UCLA Psychr & Biobehav Sci
BOX 951759, 760 Westwood Plaza,
38-159 Semel Institute
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1759
We would also love to know about your efforts with this cause: [email protected]

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Rats, mice, birds, amphibians and other animals have been excluded from coverage by the Animal Welfare Act. Therefore research facility reports do not include these animals. As a result of this situation, a blank report, or one with few animals listed, does not mean that a facility has not performed experiments on non-reportable animals. A blank form does mean that the facility in question has not used covered animals (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, pigs, sheep, goats, etc.). Rats and mice alone are believed to comprise over 90% of the animals used in experimentation. Therefore the majority of animals used at research facilities are not even counted.

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