Establishment Of Observational Learning Behavioral Paradigm And Electrophysiological Experimental Platform In Rhesus Monkey

Observational learning refers to the learning in which individuals acquire new behaviors or change their behaviors by observing others' behaviors or behavioral outcomes.Observational learning is one of the most important learning types for human beings and other higher animals.However,the neuronal representation mechanism of observational learning is still unclear.In the present work,we established a behavioral paradigm for observational learning in rhesus monkeys,including software development and hardware design,which can be used for studying the neuronal encoding mechanism of observational learning.We designed two behavioral tasks: a delayed matching-to-sample(DMS)task and a sequentially touching(ST)task.In the DMS task,monkeys were required to distinguish different patterns displayed on the screen,and choose the previouslypresented sample pattern by touching it.In the ST task,monkeys were required to remember the sequence of sequentially-presented patterns and touch the patterns sequentially.In the process of observing learning,a trainer monkey first learned the tasks independently,and an observer monkey learned to perform the same tasks by observing the performance of the trainer monkey.The results show that,for the DMS task,Monkey K reached a stable level of 75% correct performance through 18-day training,and for the ST task,Monkey K reached a stable level of 85% correct performance through 15-day training and Monkey L reached the same level of correct performance through 10-day training.Comprehensive analysis of feasibility revealed that the ST task was more suitable for observational learning than the DMS task,and we thus determined to use the ST task as the behavioral model for observational learning.In addition,we successfully recorded stable neuronal firing activities from the prefrontal cortex of an awake monkeys.The present work has laid a solid foundation for our laboratory to study the prefrontal cortical neuronal encoding of observational learning.