The Macaque Social Responsiveness Scale (mSRS): A Rapid Screening Tool for Assessing Variability in the Social Responsiveness of Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta).
The Macaque Social Responsiveness Scale (mSRS): A Rapid Screening Tool for Assessing Variability in the Social Responsiveness of Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta).
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0145956
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Parr LA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Feczko EJ;Bliss-Moreau E;Walum H;Pruett JR Jr;Parr LA
由于缺乏稳健的转化动物模型，对人类神经精神疾病（例如自闭症谱系障碍（ASD））的生物学机制的理解一直受到阻碍。恒河猴 (Macaca mulatta) 表现出许多与自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 相同的社交行为，这使它们成为模拟社交障碍的优秀动物物种。然而，与自闭症谱系障碍相关的社交障碍可能反映了特征连续分布的极端。因此，为了验证恒河猴作为研究与自闭症谱系障碍具有很强转化相关性的社交障碍的动物模型，研究人员需要一种易于实施的测量工具，可以在维度上量化社会行为的变化。社会反应量表 (SRS) 是一项包含 65 个项目的调查，可识别人类中与 ASD 症状严重程度相关的典型和非典型社会行为。黑猩猩 SRS 已经得到验证，当前的研究将该工具应用于恒河猴 (mSRS)。 15 名评估者对居住在 Yerkes 国家灵长类动物研究中心的 105 只恒河猴完成了 mSRS。 mSRS 分数显示出具有正偏度的单峰分布，识别出 6 个统计异常值。评估者间的信度非常强，但 36 个问题中只有 17 个问题显示出积极的项目内信度。探索性因素分析的结果确定了 3 个因素可以解释超过 60% 的方差，其中 12 个项目显着地加载到主要因素上。这些项目反映了与社交回避、社交焦虑或缺乏灵活性以及社交自信相关的行为。这些初步发现令人鼓舞，表明恒河猴的社会反应能力的变异性可以使用 mSRS 进行量化：mSRS 是一种与人类疾病具有很强转化相关性的工具。通过进一步修改，mSRS 可能为研究社交障碍的生物学机制提供一个有前景的新方向。
Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying human neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been hindered by the lack of a robust, translational animal model. Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) display many of the same social behaviors that are affected in ASD, making them an excellent animal species in which to model social impairments. However, the social impairments associated with ASD may reflect extreme ends of a continuous distribution of traits. Thus, to validate the rhesus monkey as an animal model for studying social impairments that has strong translational relevance for ASD, researchers need an easily-implemented measurement tool that can quantify variation in social behavior dimensionally. The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a 65-item survey that identifies both typical and atypical social behaviors in humans that covary with ASD symptom severity. A chimpanzee SRS has already been validated and the current study adapted this tool for use in the rhesus monkey (mSRS). Fifteen raters completed the mSRS for 105 rhesus monkeys living at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. The mSRS scores showed a unimodal distribution with a positive skew that identified 6 statistical outliers. Inter-rater reliability was very strong, but only 17 of the 36 questions showed positive intra-item reliability. The results of an exploratory factor analysis identified 3 factors that explained over 60% of the variance, with 12 items significantly loading onto the primary factor. These items reflected behaviors associated with social avoidance, social anxiety or inflexibility and social confidence. These initial findings are encouraging and suggest that variability in the social responsiveness of rhesus monkeys can be quantified using the mSRS: a tool that has strong translational relevance for human disorders. With further modification, the mSRS may provide an promising new direction for research on the biological mechanisms underlying social impairments.