Study of characteristics of deteriorated abilities in aged monkeys

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To examine the ability of monkeys to plan and the effect of aging on this ability, performance in a food retrieval task was assessed in aged and younger Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). All of the monkeys showed, to a greater or lesser extent, systematic patterns of response. An analysis of systematization of responses indicated that the strength of systematization was higher in the younger monkeys than in the aged ones. Furthermore, the task performance strongly correlated with the strength of systematization of responses. We simulated the performance in this task by monkeys without any prior plans. Results suggest that the empirical data were far more systematic than the simulated data. Here we conclude that monkeys can plan and that the ability of monkeys to plan deteriorates with age, which causes cognitive decline.