Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Optometry & Vision Sciences, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-230)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-47).

Social grooming is one of the most common forms of affiliative behaviour among socially living animals and has been in the centre of interest from the early beginnings of primatology. Social grooming is a behaviour in which social animals, clean or maintain one another's body and many studies focused on investigating the function of grooming behaviour. This thesis consists of general introduction and three studies that investigate social grooming in a population of semi-free ranging Barbary macaques from Gibraltar. The studies are based on original data and the results provide an interesting and new insight into the grooming behaviour in Barbary macaques. The first study focused on grooming patterns among females and we found that grooming was directed up the hierarchy, was affected by friendship and kinship. In the second study we tested the effect of maternal status on grooming among females and results showed that mothers gave less grooming but did not receive more grooming from other females. On the basis of these results we proposed that the observed patterns would be better explained by time constraints posed on mothers, rather than by grooming for infant handling exchange. In the last study we investigated the relationship between grooming and sexual activity between males and females. Our data showed that males as well as females preferred for mating activities those individuals that groom them most.

This thesis presents the development and application of methods to assess cognitive markers of emotion and psychological wellbeing in a species of nonhuman primate, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). In humans, vulnerability to emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression is characterized by particular cognitive profiles, known as cognitive biases. For example, anxious people automatically attend to threat-relevant information, interpret ambiguous information negatively, and have negative expectations of future events. In this thesis, I first describe two treatments that were used prior to cognitive testing to induce positive and negative shifts in inferred affective state in the monkeys (enrichment and a health-check, respectively) and discuss the impact of these treatments on the monkeys’ behaviour and physiology (Chapters 2 and 3). In the first cognitive study (Chapter 4), I present a method that uses eye-gaze to assess the extent to which threatening (versus non-threatening) stimuli capture visual spatial attention when two stimuli are presented at different locations. In the second study (Chapter 5), I present a simple operant touch-screen task to assess the extent to which a threatening distractor stimulus captures attention and impairs performance on an ongoing task when presented at the same location as the taskrelevant stimulus. In the third study (Chapter 6), I present a Go/NoGo touchscreen task to assess judgements about the reward value of ambiguous stimuli. In all of these studies, the two treatments led to different cognitive profiles in the monkeys. Monkeys showed a) automatic capture of attention by threatening stimuli, which was followed by avoidance following the health-check, but not Post-enrichment; b) impaired task performance when a threatening distractor stimulus was presented Post-health-check, and improved performance on these trials Post-enrichment; and c) a more negative judgement about the reward value of ambiguous stimuli Post-health-check versus Post-enrichment. I discuss these cognitive biases in light of available data from humans, and recent work with nonhuman animals. These data indicate that furthering our understanding of primate and other animal psychological wellbeing, may be achieved through the development of measures of cognitive bias, such as those presented here.

付記する学位プログラム名: 霊長類学・ワイルドライフサイエンス・リーディング大学院 / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第20045号 / 理博第4230号 / 新制||理||1609(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 Michael Alan Huffman, 准教授 後藤 幸織, 教授 平井 啓久 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Macaques (Macaca) are the most geographically widespread and behaviourally diverse primate genus, and although macaque species share the same basic social structure, they display broad interspecific variation in patterns of social behaviour. Based on these patterns, macaque species have been arranged along a 4-grade scale for social style. At one end of the scale, there are grade 1 species (e.g., Japanese macaques) that have highly hierarchical and despotic social systems, and at the other end, grade 4 species (e.g., Tonkean macaques), that have more relaxed and egalitarian social systems. In this study, the play fighting of juvenile Tonkean and Japanese macaques was compared to determine whether or not play behaviour co-varies in a manner similar to that of adult social behaviour. As predicted, Tonkean macaques exhibit a relatively cooperative style of play fighting, whereas Japanese macaques exhibit a relatively competitive style of play fighting. / x, 174 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. --

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

La vie en groupe fascine les scientifiques depuis longtemps et la question des mécanismes en jeu permettant à un groupe social de rester cohésif est largement étudiée. Dans ce travail, je me suis intéressée à l’implication des relations sociales dans le maintien de la cohésion chez trois espèces de Cercopithecinae. Pourquoi certains individus occupent une place particulière au sein du réseau de relations sociales d’un groupe ? Ces individus ayant un statut social particulier ont-ils un rôle de ciment social ? D’après les résultats de ce travail, les relations de parenté, en relation avec le style social de l’espèce, semblent être le facteur prédominant sous-tendant l’accession des individus à un statut social élevé. De plus, les individus occupant une position sociale élevée jouent un rôle primordial dans la stabilité du groupe, et ont également une influence importante sur les décisions prises quotidiennement, leur conférant in fine un avantage en termes de survie et de reproduction. / The comprehension of the mechanisms allowing a social group to stay cohesive throughout their environment and across seasons is a fascinating question. In this work, I studied the implication of social relationships in maintaining group cohesion in three Cercopithecinae species. Why some individuals occupy specific positions within the social relationships network? Have these individuals a particular role in the stability of social groups? According to our results, kinship seems to be an important variable underlying the access to a high social status for group members, in respect with the social style displayed by the considered species. Moreover, Individuals occupying such high social positions play a crucial role for the group stability. They also have a great influence on decisions took on a daily basis by the group. This high social status is therefore advantageous for individuals in terms of survival and reproduction.

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