Cognitive control in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Öffentlichkeit

Abstract

Cognitive control helps regulate behaviors and cognitions in circumstances where relying pre-potent habits might be inappropriate. In humans, cognitive control is critical for success in academic, occupational, and social domains. Cognitive control may also be important for nonhuman animals, however, we know little about the role of cognitive control in regulating nonhuman behavior. For study 1 of this thesis, I conducted two experiments that assessed attentional control in rhesus monkeys. In Experiment 1, I developed a nonhuman analog of the Eriksen flanker task to measure attentional control in rhesus monkeys. Monkeys were impaired by conflicting cues, paralleling findings from human subjects, and validating the test. In Experiment 2, I tested whether social dominance in group-housed rhesus monkeys was associated with chronic stress and impaired attentional control. Social subordination in the large social group I sampled was not associated with either impaired cognitive control or chronic stress, although there was substantial individual variation in cognitive control in the group. In study 2, I evaluated the extent to which mental imagery occurs in rhesus monkeys, focusing on another manifestation of cognition control: mental rotation. In Experiment 1, monkeys generalized from upright to rotated shapes and showed the hallmark relation between response latency and extent of rotation. In Experiment 2, monkeys transformed mental images in response to a rotational cue, allowing them to identify a shape that matched their mental image with a precision better than 30 degrees. In Experiment 3, monkeys used the same rotational cue in a new context, significantly flattening the rotation-latency function. Thus, monkeys have mental representations that contain fine perceptual details that remain isomorphic through mental transformation. Together, the work presented in this thesis provides new tools for the study of cognitive control in monkeys, and further clarifies the nature of cognitive control in nonhumans. 

Table of Contents

Table of contents

1.    General introduction ................................................................................1

1.1. Inhibitory Control .........................................................................................3

1.2. Working Memory .........................................................................................6

2.    Paper 1: An Investigation of Social Dominance, Psychosocial Stress, and Attentional Control in Rhesus Monkeys.....................................................................10

2.1. Experiment 1.................................................................................................15

2.1.1.    Procedure............................................................................................17

2.1.2.    Results and discussion........................................................................20

2.2.  Experiment 2................................................................................................23

2.2.1.    Procedure............................................................................................25

2.2.2.    Results and discussion........................................................................29

2.3. General discussion........................................................................................37

3.    Paper 2: Rhesus monkeys manipulate mental images.........................40

3.1. Experiment 1.................................................................................................43

3.1.1.    Methods..............................................................................................43

3.1.2.    Results and Discussion.......................................................................46

3.2. Experiment 2.................................................................................................48

3.2.1.    Methods..............................................................................................48

3.2.2.    Results and Discussion.......................................................................50

3.3. Experiment 3.................................................................................................51

3.3.1.    Methods..............................................................................................51

3.3.2.    Results and Discussion.......................................................................52

3.4. General Discussion........................................................................................54

4.    General Discussion..........................................................................56

5.    References........................................................................................63

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Neuroscience and Animal Behavior
Degree	Ph.D.
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Behavioral
Stichwort	Cognitive Control Mental Imagery Rhesus Monkey Stress
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Robert Hampton, Ph.D., Emory University
Committee Members	Mark Wilson, Ph.D., Emory University Harold Gouzoules, Ph.D., Emory University Stephan Hamann, Ph.D., Emory University Jocelyne Bachevalier, Ph.D., Emory University

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