overview: This study builds on evidence to suggest that rhesus monkeys may be a good model for studying social deficits associated with autism spectrum disorders.
sauce: Florida Institute of Technology
A new study builds on growing evidence of the importance of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) as a model for the core social impairments observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
ASD is an early-onset neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in persistent social communication and interaction. Despite its prevalence and social cost, its underlying disease mechanisms remain poorly understood, due to overreliance on rodent models, and her ASD-related behaviors in humans. Complex social and cognitive skills essential for symptom modeling are lacking.
Like humans, rhesus monkeys have complex cognitive abilities and exhibit stable and marked individual differences in social functioning, making them promising for better understanding the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying social disorders. It has become a model.
“Sociability in rhesus monkeys is stable over time and is associated with variability in initiation rather than acceptance of prosocial behavior,” says Katherine F. Talbot, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Florida Institute of Technology and Stanford University. A study by researchers from the University of California, Davis, and the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, found that some social functioning differences between monkeys classified as less social and those classified as more social. I discovered that one aspect is different.
At the California National Primate Research Center, the team analyzed three years of data from 95 male rhesus monkeys housed in large outdoor social groups in semi-natural habitats. classified monkeys based on their social behavior.
For example, they may ask whether monkeys participate in activities such as grooming, behaviors that promote social bonding in nonhuman primates, or whether they are in close proximity or contact with other individuals, or Simply hanging out alone with no one around.
Monkeys that spent the most time alone were classified as hyposocial, while monkeys that spent the least amount of time alone were classified as hypersocial. The researchers then assessed differences in the social communication profiles of these two groups of monkeys.
The team found that highly social monkeys initiated more prosocial behaviors compared to less social monkeys. However, there was no difference in the frequency of prosocial behavior between hyposocial and hypersocial monkeys.
“This suggests that there is an underlying social motivation factor. We find that monkeys with higher social motivation have higher social motivation. It supports the social motivation hypothesis and provides insight into how we behave, which can be influenced by underlying biology,” said Talbot.
“There are multiple theories and ideas about the causes of the social impairments seen in autism, one of which is that people with autism have low social motivation.”
This hypothesis suggests that people with ASD tend to be defective in processing social rewards. In other words, social interactions are inherently unrewarding.
The team also found no difference in threat behavior between low-social and high-social monkeys in initiating or receiving threats. This was contrary to their hypothesis that less social monkeys are more likely to be bullied or traumatized if they are not communicating effectively with their peers.
The results of the current study better characterize this naturally occurring low-social phenotype and provide researchers with mechanistic insight into the lack of social motivation seen in people with ASD. It’s helpful.
“There hasn’t been a lot of research looking at rhesus monkeys as a model for ASD,” says Talbot.
“What we are modeling is a naturally occurring social deficit. Distributed. People who do not fall on the spectrum will also exhibit these characteristics.”
Individuals with ASD may also experience deficits in other social cognitive skills, such as theory of mind, which allows them to understand their own personal beliefs and knowledge differently than others.
Following gazes and understanding what others see is another element of theory of mind. Impaired eye tracking is often one of the first behavioral signs in children with ASD.
The team also explored the underlying biology of hyposocial and hypersocial monkeys and how it relates to performance on other social cognitive tasks, such as how well monkeys follow the gaze of their peers. I am working on research to find out. They interacted with their peers and asked how well they could identify faces, how that compared to their performance in the non-social domain, how well they identified objects, etc.
About this Autism Research News
author: press office
sauce: Florida Institute of Technology
contact: Press Office – Florida Tech
image: Image credit to Kathy West
Original research: closed access.
“Rhesus monkey sociability is stable over time and is associated with variation in initiation rather than acceptance of prosocial behaviorsBy Catherine F. Talbot et al. American Journal of Primatology
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Rhesus monkey sociability is stable over time and is associated with variation in initiation rather than acceptance of prosocial behaviors
Although rhesus monkeys and humans are highly social primates, both species exhibit marked variations in social functioning and span the spectrum of sociality.
The naturally occurring low sociability in rhesus monkeys has been associated with human autism spectrum disorder (ASD), especially when low sociability was found to be stable over time and associated with decreased social motivation. may be a promising building block for modeling social impairments associated with
Therefore, we performed a quantitative social behavioral assessment to better characterize changes in sociability and social communication profiles N.= 95 male rhesus monkeys (Makaka Murata) housed in large outdoor groups.
Study 1 determined the social classification of subjects by ranking the total frequency of non-social behaviors. Monkeys with the highest frequency of antisocial behavior were hyposocial (n= 20) Monkeys with the lowest frequency of non-social behaviors are highly social (n= 21).
To assess group differences in social communication profiles, Study 2 examined the proportion of transient social communication signals and whether these social signals were initiated by or directed at the subject. quantified.
Finally, study 3 assessed intra-individual social stability in a subset of monkeys (n= 11 hyposocial, n= 11 high sociability) 2 years after the first observation.
The frequency of antisocial behavior was significantly correlated at the two time points (Studies 1 and 3). Similarly, low social and high social classifications accurately predicted classification after 2 years.
Hyposocial monkeys initiated less prosocial behavior than hypersocial monkeys, but the groups did not differ in how they received prosocial behavior, nor did they differ in threat behavior.
These findings indicate that sociability is a stable trait-like trait and that low sociability is associated with reduced initiation of prosocial behavior in rhesus monkeys.
This evidence also suggests that low sociability may be a useful construct for gaining mechanistic insight into the deficits in social motivation often seen in people with ASD.
