Chronically implantable LED arrays for behavioral optogenetics in primates

Optogenetic methods have been widely used in rodent brains, but remain relatively under-developed for nonhuman primates such as rhesus macaques, an animal model with a large brain expressing sophisticated sensory, motor and cognitive behaviors. To address challenges in behavioral optogenetics in large brains, we developed Opto-Array, a chronically implantable array of light-emitting diodes for high-throughput optogenetic perturbation. We demonstrated that optogenetic silencing in the macaque primary visual cortex with the help of the Opto-Array results in reliable retinotopic visual deficits in a luminance discrimination task. We separately confirmed that Opto-Array illumination results in local neural silencing, and that behavioral effects are not due to tissue heating. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Opto-Array for behavioral optogenetic applications in large brains.