Analysis and Redesign of Interactive Test Setup for Primates

Dart NeuroScience, LLC Engineering, 2013-14

Liaison(s): Philip Cheung ’96, Ronald Blandford ’75, John McNeil ’89
Advisor(s): Anthony Bright
Students(s): James McConnaughey (TL-S), Samantha Munoz (TL-F), Jaqueline Ong (F), Shreyasha Paudel, Jirka Hladis (S), Jingbin Yang(S)

Dart NeuroScience (DNS) is developing pharmaceuticals to enhance memory function. Though the pharmaceuticals are not ready yet, researchers are preparing for animal testing and training non- human primates to perform memory tasks using touchscreens. The accuracy and reliability of these experiments is paramount, and the touchscreens and reward pellet dispensers used are inaccurate and unreliable. The DNS Clinic team conducted testing to determine the best touchscreen technology for the application and developed a prototype of a superior pellet dispenser.