Free-Behavior Monitoring and Reward System for Non-human Primates

In Frontiers Neuroscience, Tyler Libey and Eberhard E. Fetz share their open-source device for recording neural activity from free behaving non-human primates in their home cages and administering reward.

This device is designed to document bodily movement and neural activity and deliver rewards to monkeys behaving freely in their home cages. This device allows researchers to explore behaviors in freely moving non-human primates rather than simply relying on rigid and tightly controlled movements which lends itself to further understanding movement, reward, and the neural signals involved with these behaviors. Studying free-moving animals may offer essential insight to understanding the neural signals associated with reward-guided movement, which may offer guidance in developing more accurate brain machine interfaces. The behavior monitoring system incorporates existing untethered recording equipment, Neurochip, and a custom hub to control a cage-mounted feeder to deliver short-latency rewards. A depth camera is used to provide gross movement data streams from the home cage in addition to the neural activity that is recorded.