Nonhuman primate models are playing an expanded role in diverse biomedical research areas ranging from AIDS to aging. We must provide for the well- being of these animals, particularly when housed alone for research or health reasons, and ensure that their use in these paradigms is not confounded by extraneous stress or deprivation variables. It is also essential that assessment protocols, with demonstrated reliability in measuring relevant dependent variables, be available to ensure efficient research design and minimize numbers of research animals required. Computer-based joystick tasks can effectively contribute to meeting these goals. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of joystick tasks in maintaining high levels of focused activity, we now propose a) to investigate their effectiveness in ameliorating the response to a common laboratory stressor, the removal of a subject from its social group, thereby expanding use of the tasks in promoting well-being; and b) to establish baseline standards, for different age and sex categories, for a test battery providing continuous assessment of a broad range of cognitive and psychomotor abilities identified as affected in the AIDS Dementia Complex and other disorders. In our previous grant period, we developed several new technologies that expand the potential of the joystick paradigm. For research which precludes food rewards, and as a means of studying social perception, we have shown that monkeys will perform these tasks with live video of conspecifics as rewards. We now propose to determine a) specific parameters important in establishing and maintaining the long-term effectiveness of social-video reward; and b) the capacity of video exposure prior to full contact to increase affiliative and reduce aggressive content of initial social encounters. We also have developed an automated means for identifying individual performance within the group setting to avoid the need to remove an individual from its group for cognitive testing and to allow both enrichment and assessment of specific members within social groups. Using group-living animals, we now propose to assess individual performance on our assessment battery, as well as determine temporal and spatial patterns of joystick use, as a function of social variables. Hand preference in using the joystick will also be related to the nature of the specific task performed.
| Brannon, Elizabeth M; Andrews, Michael W; Rosenblum, Leonard A (2004) Effectiveness of video of conspecifics as a reward for socially housed bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata). Percept Mot Skills 98:849-58 |
