MONKEY BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS IN A SEMI-NATURALISTIC ENVIRONMENT

这个子项目是众多研究子项目之一

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Early medial temporal dysfunction is associated with many developmental mental disorders (schizophrenia, autism, Williams's syndrome) that have significant impact on the normal cognitive development of a young individual that spans the entire life. Because little is known on the long-term behavioral and cognitive consequences of early damage to specific structures within this brain region, specifically when the animals are raised in a naturalistic environment, we prepared 3-week-old male monkeys with bilateral neurotoxic amygdala lesions (N = 3) and sham-operated controls (N = 2) and have replaced them together with their mothers in a large semi-naturalistic social group at the Yerkes field station. We have followed in great detail the emergence of species-specific behaviors during the first year of life relating to affiliation, social status and fearfulness, and the appearance of sexually dimorphic behaviors.