Motivational Shifts in Aging Monkeys and the Origins of Social Selectivity
Motivational Shifts in Aging Monkeys and the Origins of Social Selectivity
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DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.066
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发表时间：
2016-07-11
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
Fischer, Julia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Almeling, Laura;Hammerschmidt, Kurt;Fischer, Julia
随着人类年龄的增长，他们在个人目标和社会伙伴方面变得更加挑剔。虽然目标的选择性被归因于资源（如体力）的损失，但根据社会情感选择性理论，对情感上有意义的伴侣的日益关注是由个人意识到未来生命的减少所驱动的。与人类相似，衰老的猴子也表现出体力损失和社会活动减少[2,5 -7]。为了弄清一般的资源损失和时间减少的意识，我们在La forest des Singes的一个大型年龄异质巴巴里猕猴（Macaca sylvanus）种群中进行了实地实验和行为观察相结合。新的对象测试显示，在成年早期，人们对非社会环境失去了兴趣，这是由食物奖励的可获得性调节的。使用声音和视觉表现社会伙伴的实验表明，猴子对社会刺激保持兴趣，并对朋友和社会上重要的个人保持优先兴趣。年长的雌性参与较少的社会互动，尽管其他群体成员继续与它们建立关系。因此，社交活动的减少并不是因为社交兴趣的减少。总之，在衰老的人类中观察到的一些动机转变，特别是对社会刺激的关注越来越多，而不是对非社会刺激的关注，可能是在缺乏有限时间视角的情况下发生的，而且很可能深深植根于灵长类动物的进化。我们的发现强调了非人类灵长类动物作为理解人类衰老的有价值模型的价值[8,9]。
As humans age, they become more selective regarding their personal goals [1] and social partners [2]. Whereas the selectivity in goals has been attributed to losses in resources (e.g., physical strength) [3], the increasing focus on emotionally meaningful partners is, according to socioemotional selectivity theory, driven by the awareness of one's decreasing future lifetime [2]. Similar to humans, aging monkeys show physical losses [4] and reductions in social activity [2, 5-7]. To disentangle a general resource loss and the awareness of decreasing time, we combined field experiments with behavioral observations in a large age-heterogeneous population of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) at La Foret des Singes. Novel object tests revealed a loss of interest in the nonsocial environment in early adulthood, which was modulated by the availability of a food reward. Experiments using vocal and visual representations of social partners indicated that monkeys maintained an interest in social stimuli and a preferential interest in friends and socially important individuals into old age. Old females engaged in fewer social interactions, although other group members continued to invest in relationships with them. Consequently, reductions in sociality were not due to a decrease in social interest. In conclusion, some of the motivational shifts observed in aging humans, particularly the increasing focus on social over nonsocial stimuli, may occur in the absence of a limited time perspective and are most likely deeply rooted in primate evolution. Our findings highlight the value of nonhuman primates as valuable models for understanding human aging [8, 9].