The marmoset as a model system for studying voluntary motor control

Jeff Walker, Jason MacLean, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos
Developmental Neurobiology | First published: 14 October 2016

ABSTRACT

The common marmoset has recently gained interest as an animal model for systems and behavioral neuroscience. This is due in part to the advent of transgenic marmosets, which affords the possibility of combining genetic manipulations with physiological recording and behavioral monitoring to study neural systems. In this review, they will argue that the marmoset provides a unique opportunity to study the neural basis of voluntary motor control from an integrative perspective. First, as an intermediate animal model, the marmoset represents an important bridge in motor system function between other primates, including humans, and rodents. Second, due to the marmoset’s small brain size and lissencephalic cortex, novel electrophysiological and optical recording technologies will allow an integrative study of cortical function at multiple spatial scales beyond that afforded by other non‐human primate models. Finally, as a primate expressing an ancestral state of corticospinal organization, the marmoset offers the possibility of understanding the integrative function of cortical and spinal interneuron circuitry in isolation of more recent corticomotoneuronal elaborations. If the potential of the marmoset as a model species is to be realized, they will need to learn to work with their natural behavioral repertoire. They have concluded by considering practical aspects of studying motor systems with marmosets.

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 77: 273–285, 2017