The development of mother-infant social synchrony, sensory-motor reflexes and temperament in infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) Open Access
Dharanendra, Sahrudh (Spring 2019)
Published
Abstract
Investigations of the biological and environmental factors that guide neurodevelopmental changes occurring during the first weeks/months after birth are clearly needed, as many neurodevelopmental disorders emerge from brain abnormalities in early infancy. Previous research in infant monkeys has indicated that typical development of infant social skills occurs during infant-caregiver interactions from birth to six months. This period represents a pivotal transition period (up to twelve months in monkeys), which may lay the foundation for further neural and behavioral maturation. The aim of this project was to use a rhesus macaque model to characterize transitions in early mother-infant social synchrony (i.e. mutual gaze and other bonding behaviors) and how did they relate to transitions in sensory-motor skills. To this end, four infant rhesus monkeys and their mothers were observed in their large social compounds to assess social contingency during mother-infant interactions (including mutual gaze) for the first four weeks of life. During the same period, sensory-motor measures were taken to determine transitions from reflexive to more voluntary controlled behaviors in infant monkeys. Infant-mother mutual gaze was very low during this first postnatal month, with the mother mostly initiating looking behavior towards their infants. All sensory-motor reflexes were present with only the Rooting reflex declining at the end of the first postnatal month. Changes in infants’ temperament were also observed with a slight increase in fearfulness and Vocal Response Intensity and reduced Consolability, indicating greater distress while infants were separated from their mothers. Although only few behavioral changes were observable during the first month of life, the trend of our current results indicate the need to expand our study past the first month as the infants will further mature and to increase our sample size to provide significant power to the changes observed.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction.…………………………………………………………………………………...… 1
Methods.………………………………………………………………………………...……..…..7
Results.……………………………………………………………………………...…………..….8
Discussion.………………………………………………………………………...…………..…..9
Figures.………………………………………………………………………………………...…. 14
Table 1.………………………………………………………………………….… 15
Table 2.……………………………………………………………………………. 16
Table 3.……………………………………………………………………………. 19
Table 4……………………………………………………………………………...21
Figure 1……………………………………………………………………………. 22
Figure 2.………………………………………………………………………...….23
References.……………………………………………………………………………………... 25
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