Adaptation Of Laboratory Reared Monkeys To Field Environ

该项目研究了在不同实验室条件下出生和长大的恒河猴和其他非人灵长类动物如何适应放置在包含猴自然栖息地特定物理和社会特征的环境中。通过检查行为表和监测这些受试者的各种生理系统来评估适应性，得出相对生理和心理健康的广泛指数。受试者对其各自环境的选定特征的实验操作的反应也以类似的方式进行评估。只要有可能，就收集现场数据进行适当的比较。另一个重点是研究认知、行为和社会过程，这些过程涉及到适应新的环境或环境。在这个研究项目中，适应性是通过检查行为表和监测猴子整个生命周期的各种生理系统来评估的，从而得出相对生理和心理健康的广泛指数。在过去的一年里，我们完成了对居住在波多黎各卡约圣地亚哥两个自由放养社会群体中的恒河猴母子对的数据分析，这些数据收集于后代出生后的头两年，以确定它们行为的个体差异与后代及其母亲在各种心理生理、内分泌和形态测量方面的个体差异的关系程度。从一到二岁，幼鼠在接受兽医检查后的心率、皮质醇和催乳素的血浆浓度以及几乎所有的形态测量指标上都表现出稳定的个体差异。幼鼠的身体质量指数、皮质醇和生长激素的血浆浓度在幼鼠一岁时与其母亲无关，但在幼鼠两岁时变得显著相关。皮质醇水平低的母亲对婴儿的惩罚更多，而皮质醇水平高的母亲则表现出最高的婴儿携带率。在整个研究过程中，表现出最高频率激动行为的后代在捕获后也表现出最高的皮质醇水平。这些发现表明，母亲的形态和生理模式通过发育经历以及遗传/宫内因素与后代的行为和生理有关。

This project investigates how rhesus monkeys and other nonhuman primate species born and raised under different laboratory conditions adapt to placement into environments that contain specific physical and social features of the monkey's natural habitat. Adaptation is assessed by examining behavioral repertoires and by monitoring a variety of physiological systems in these subjects, yielding broad-based indices of relative physical and psychological well-being. The responses of subjects to experimental manipulation of selected features of their respective environments are also assessed in similar fashion. Whenever possible, field data are collected for appropriate comparisons. An additional focus is on investigating the cognitive, behavioral, and social processes involved in adaptation to new settings or circumstances. In this program of research adaptation is assessed by examining behavioral repertoires and by monitoring a variety of physiological systems in monkeys throughout the lifespan, yielding broad-based indices of relative physical and psychological well-being. This past year we completed the analysis of data collected on mother-offspring pairs of rhesus monkeys residing in two free-ranging social groups at the field site at Cayo Santiago, PR throughout the offsprings' first two years of life to determine the degree to which individual differences in their behavior were related to individual differences in a variety of psychophysiological, endocrine, and morphometric measures in the offspring and in their mothers. Offspring showed stable individual differences in heart rate following capture for veterinary examination from their first to second year, as well as in plasma concentrations of cortisol and prolactin and in virtually all morphometric measures. Body mass index and plasma concentrations of cortisol and growth hormone in offspring and their mothers were unrelated when the offspring were yearlings but became significantly correlated by the time the offspring were two years old. Mothers with low cortisol levels punished their infants more, whereas mothers with high cortisol levels showed the highest rate of infant carrying. Offspring exhibiting the highest frequencies of agitated behavior throughout the study also exhibited the highest cortisol levels following capture. These findings suggest that morphological and physiological patterns of mothers are related to their offsprings' behavior and physiology via developmental experience as well as through genetic/intrauterine factors. The relationships between measures of neurobiological functioning and various dimensions of maternal behavior were also investigated in a ongoing study of rhesus monkey mother-offspring pairs living in the species-normative social group maintained in the LCE's 5-acre field enclosure at the NIHAC. CSF samples were collected from mothers when their infants were 3-5 months of age and assayed for 5-HIAA and HVA; the resulting values were then compared with different aspects of maternal behavior recorded when their infants were 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 months old, respectively. Measures of maternal protectiveness and infant restraint during the latter two time periods were negatively correlated with both mothers'5-HIAA and HVA concentrations. In contrast, measures of two forms of active infant rejection were positively correlated with concentrations of both monoamine metabolites during the latter two time periods, whereas the rate of passive rejections was not significantly related to concentrations of either metabolites during any time period. Another study investigating mother-infant relationships in rhesus monkeys housed in the LCE field enclosure compared primiparous with multiparous females with respect to various aspects of their maternal behavior and that of their infants. Offspring of multiparous females were more active than were primiparous infants during their first month of life, initiating and breaking contact with and approaching and leaving their mothers more frequently than their primiparous counterparts. Primiparous mothers exhibited higher rates of initiating ventral contact with their infants, as well as initiating nipple contact, throughout most of their infant's first 5 months of life. These findings parallel parity differences in mother-infant relationships previously reported from field studies of rhesus monkeys and several other Old World monkey species. Finally, a study examining continuity and change in patterns of adrenocortical functioning throughout the juvenile years in rhesus monkeys reared in 3 different physical and social environments for their first 7 months of life but thereafter placed together and subsequently maintained in large peer groups was completed and the results accepted for publication. Monkeys from all 3 rearing conditions (mother-peer, surrogate-peer, and peer-only) exhibited significant increases in plasma cortisol over their first 5 months but then showed steady declines from 1 to 3 years of age; females consistently had higher concentrations than males at all ages. Plasma cortisol levels of surrogate-peer reared subjects were lower than were those of their mother-peer reared counterparts (with peer-only reared subjects intermediate) during the first month of life but not at later ages. Juvenile cortisol levels were significantly correlated with infant levels in all samples collected after two weeks of age, indicating long-term developmental stability of individual differences. Saliva samples were collected from a subset of these subjects at 1, 2, and 3 years. Analysis of salivary cortisol concentrations from this subgroup revealed a significant age-related decline, as well as lower levels for surrogate-peer reared monkeys at each age, but no significant sex differences at any age. Comparison of salivary and plasma cortisol values obtained from the same subjects yielded a highly significant positive correlation.