Frontoparietal networks underlying saccadic eye movements in the common marmoset

Common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) are small-bodied New World primates that are increasingly popular as model animals for neuroscience research. Their lissencephalic cortex provides substantial advantages for the application of high-density electrophysiological techniques to enhance our understanding of local cortical circuits and their cognitive and motor functions. The oculomotor circuitry underlying saccadic eye movements has been a popular system to study cognitive control. Most of what we know about this system, comes from electrophysiological studies on macaques, but most of their cortical oculomotor areas are buried within sulci and harder to access for high-density recordings. In contrast, marmosets provide greater advantages for studies of the oculomotor system, since critical areas of this network such as the frontal eye fields (FEF) and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) are easily accessible at the cortical surface. In contrast to the well-established macaques, little is known about functional connectivity patterns of common marmosets. In this thesis, we used resting-state ultra-high-field fMRI on anesthetized marmosets and macaques along with awake human subjects, to examine and compare the functional organization of the brain, with emphasis on the saccade system. Independent component analysis revealed homologous resting-state networks in marmoset to those in macaques and humans, including a distributed frontoparietal network. Seed-region analyses of the marmoset superior colliculus (SC) revealed the strongest frontal functional connectivity with area 8aD bordering area 6DR. This frontal region exhibited a similar functional connectivity pattern to the FEF in macaques and humans. The results supported an evolutionarily preserved frontoparietal system and provided a starting point for invasive neurophysiological studies in the marmoset saccade system. We started by investigating the function of the marmoset posterior parietal cortex with electrical microstimulation. We implanted 32-channel Utah arrays at the location of area LIP as identified from our resting-state fMRI study and applied microstimulation while animals watched videos. Similar to macaque studies, stimulation evoked fixed-vector and goal-directed saccades, staircase saccades, and eyeblinks in marmosets. These findings demonstrated that the marmoset area LIP plays a role in the regulation of eye movements and is potentially homologous to that of the macaque. Next, we recorded the neuronal activity in marmoset areas LIP and 8aD using linear electrode arrays while animals performed a pro/antisaccade task. The antisaccade task is a popular paradigm to probe executive control. In this task, participants suppress a prepotent stimulus-driven response in favor of a less potent response away from the stimulus. Our behavioral findings indicated that area 8aD neurons were significantly more active for correct than errorenous antisaccades in contralateral directions, with respect to the recording site. We found neurons with significant stimulus-related activity in area LIP and significant saccade-related neurons in both areas 8aD and LIP. These findings provided further evidence on the role of marmoset frontal and parietal oculomotor areas in oculomotor control, supporting marmosets as alternative primate models of the oculomotor system