INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN STEREOTAXIC CALCULATION BASED ON MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN Sapajus apella PRIMATES

Sapajus apella monkeys are very promising experimental nonhuman primate (NPH) models for neuroscience research. Because of their motor repertoire, cognitive abilities, and neuroanatomical similarities to humans, they comprise very suitable models for the study of varied aspects of neurodegenerative diseases such as pathophysiological mechanisms and/or therapeutic approaches. NPHs are altricial animals with high variability in dimensions and volume brain, which can be a source of neurosurgical errors when using brain atlases for the calculation of stereotaxic coordinates. The coefficient of variation (COV) of brain volume in NHP species is higher than in rodents, e.g. 2.3% in mice compared to 6.6% in marmosets. Different from the murine model, individual stereotaxic coordinates based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) constitute a necessary experimental refinement for animals with higher brain volume COV.