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Developmental changes of rhesus monkeys in response to separation from the mother
Author(s) -
Zhang Bo,
SuarezJimenez Benjamin,
Hathaway Amanda,
Waters Carlos,
Vaughan Kelli,
Noble Pamela L.,
Fox Nathan A.,
Suomi Stephen J.,
Pine Daniel S.,
Nelson Eric E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21000
Subject(s) - separation (statistics) , psychology , temperament , developmental psychology , social isolation , distress , social withdrawal , context (archaeology) , period (music) , isolation (microbiology) , maternal deprivation , social contact , physiology , clinical psychology , medicine , personality , social psychology , psychiatry , biology , paleontology , physics , machine learning , computer science , acoustics , microbiology and biotechnology
The development of separation response behaviors in infant rhesus macaques across the first 6 months of life was assessed. Seventeen infants underwent a neonatal assessment at 7, 14, 21, and 30 days of age which included a brief period of social isolation. At 3 and 6 months of age these same monkeys and four additional subjects were again subjected to a period of brief social isolation and also exposed to a novel environment with their sedated mother. Results indicate a developmental increase followed by a steady decline in the frequency of separation vocalizations. A modest relationship between early‐infancy locomotor profiles and separation responses was also observed at several time points suggesting a possible relationship between these measures. However, stable inter‐individual measures of separation distress did not emerge until late in the infantile period. This could suggest that high levels of maternal contact‐seeking behavior early in infancy are context specific and not a reliable index of enduring temperament. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals,Inc. Dev Psychobiol 54: 798–807, 2012