Performance of juvenile baboons on neuropsychological tests assessing associative learning, motivation and attention

The CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery), a system developed for human neuropsychological testing, has previously been used to assess cognitive function in two species of non-human primates, common marmoset monkeys and rhesus macaques. We describe the application of the system to the juvenile baboon, a nonhuman primate species offering specific investigative advantages. juvenile baboons were trained and tested on a progressive ratio task to assess motivation, simple discrimination and simple reversal tasks to assess associative learning, and intra- and extra-dimensional set-shifting tasks to assess selective attention and attentional set-shifting, respectively. Study subjects were 8 juvenile baboons (Papio sp.), 4 females and 4 males aged 3.0 +/- 0.1 (mean + SEM) years and weight 8.2 +/- 0.4 kg. All baboons were easily trained, readily learned the neuropsychological tests and exhibited a stable performance. Applying a method such as the CANTAB has significant implications for expanding on the translational utility of the baboon in studies of neurodevelopment. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.