Ketamine disrupts gaze patterns during face viewing in the common marmoset

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Primate behavior
• Cognitive science

Background:

• Face processing is crucial for primates and often impaired in schizophrenia.
• The common marmoset is a valuable model for studying face processing due to similar neural networks to humans.
• Ketamine models cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, making it useful for preclinical research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of ketamine on oculomotor behavior during face viewing in marmosets.
• To understand how ketamine impacts scan paths and saccade control in a face-processing context.
• To evaluate the marmoset model for studying social cognition deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Main Methods:

• Administered subanesthetic ketamine or saline to four marmosets.
• Monitored oculomotor behavior (saccades) during viewing of conspecific face videos (intact and scrambled).
• Analyzed scan paths by identifying regions of interest and classifying saccade onset and landing positions.

Main Results:

• Ketamine administration led to a preference for viewing the snout over eye regions of faces.
• Ketamine disrupted the predictability of saccade landing positions based on onset.
• Saccade motor control showed limited effects, with increased peak velocity and reduced amplitudes in specific conditions.

Conclusions:

• Ketamine significantly disrupts scan paths during face viewing in marmosets.
• The study supports the use of ketamine in marmosets to model social cognition impairments in neuropsychiatric disorders.
• Findings highlight the marmoset's utility for investigating the neural basis of social cognitive deficits.