This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.
Downloads
Supplementary Files
Authors
Abstract
Social attention is fundamental to a wide range of behaviours in non-human primates. However, we know very little about the heritability of social attention in non-human primates, and the heritability of attention to social threat has not been assessed. Here, we provide data to begin to fill this gap in knowledge. We tested 67 female rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta, on an attention bias preferential looking task in which they viewed threat-neutral face pairs. We recorded a number of looking time measures of social attention to conspecific faces, and attention to conspecific threat faces specifically. In addition, we recorded levels of vigilant scanning in the social group. We quantified heritability and maternal effects using pedigree information. Repeatabilities for social attention ranged from 11% - 25%. Repeatability for attention to threat faces was 16%, with zero repeatability for attention bias, calculated by subtracting duration of looking towards the neutral face from duration of looking towards the threat face (a common practice in the literature). Heritabilities for social attention were 8% - 14%, with maternal effects 6% - 11%. Heritability for attention to threat was 10%, with maternal effect 4%. This is the first study that we are aware of to test the heritability of attention to threat in a non-human primate. We discuss these findings in light of understanding mechanisms underlying social behaviour in primates, evolutionary pathways of social attention in humans, epidemiology of mental health issues such as anxiety, and potential for improving markers of animal emotion and wellbeing in captivity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/5nzd4
Subjects
Animal Sciences, Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Other Medicine and Health Sciences, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Keywords
, attention bias, heritability, maternal effects, primate, Repeatability, Social attention
Dates
Published: 2019-05-02 21:25
There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.