Deciphering Neural Mechanisms Underlying Marmoset Dynamic Natural Behaviors Using a Miniaturized Wireless Large-Scale...

Deciphering neural mechanisms underlying dynamic natural behaviors of freely moving species requires long-term recordings of large-scale brain activities. However, most conventional neural recorders are limited by their weights and measures, electrode coverage, and signal throughput, hindering the dissection of underlying neural mechanisms. This study reports real-time large-scale recordings and deciphering of brain activities from frontal and temporal cortices of freely moving marmoset across various natural behavioral repertoire using a miniaturized wireless neural recorder comprising a custom-designed 120-channel flexible µECoG array. Behavior-specific highly resolved spatiotemporal neural dynamics are observed, including alpha-band activations during drinking, anticipatory responses before vocalization, and transient high-gamma increase during vigilance to human intruders. Three phases of drinking behavior are identified using multi-area neural features captured by the recorder with an accuracy exceeding 87%. After over 16 months (March 13, 2024-August 1, 2025, remaining actively recording) of recordings, the neural signals acquired using the recorder maintain high fidelity and low attenuation during both the resting and drinking states, enabling potential long-term dissection of the neural mechanisms of natural behaviors in freely moving marmosets.