The mutual influences between depressed Macaca fascicularis mothers and their infants

Qinming Zhou; Fan Xu; Qingyuan Wu; Wei Gong; Liang Xie; Tao Wang; Liang Fang; Deyu Yang; Narayan D Melgiri; Peng Xie

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089931

The mutual influences between depressed Macaca fascicularis mothers and their infants

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 5;9(3):e89931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089931. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Qinming Zhou¹, Fan Xu², Qingyuan Wu¹, Wei Gong², Liang Xie², Tao Wang¹, Liang Fang², Deyu Yang³, Narayan D Melgiri², Peng Xie¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neuroscience, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Chongqing, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
² Institute of Neuroscience, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Chongqing, China.
³ Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the influence of infant rearing on the behavior of depressed adult female Macaca fascicularis and the influence of depressed infant-rearing adult female Macaca fascicularis on their infants in a free enclosure environment.

Methods: Here, 20 depressed subjects and then 20 healthy subjects were randomly selected from a total population of 1007 adult female Macaca fascicularis subjects. Four depressed subjects and eight healthy subjects were rearing infants. By focal observation, three trained observers video-recorded the selected subjects over a total observational period of 560 hours. The video footage was analyzed by qualified blinded analysts that coded the raw footage into quantitative behavioral data (i.e., durations of 53 pre-defined behavioral items across 12 behavioral categories) for statistical analysis.

Results: Between infant-rearing and non-rearing healthy subjects, ten differential behaviors distributed across five behavioral categories were identified. Between infant-rearing and non-rearing depressed subjects, nine behaviors distributed across five behavioral categories were identified. Between infant-rearing healthy and infant-rearing depressed subjects, fifteen behaviors distributed across six behavioral categories were identified.

Conclusion: Infant-rearing depressed adult female Macaca fascicularis subjects may have a worse psychological status as compared to non-rearing depressed counterparts. Infant rearing may negatively influence depressed Macaca fascicularis mothers. Infant-rearing depressed subjects were less adequate at raising infants as compared to infant-rearing healthy subjects. Thus, maternal depression in this macaque species may negatively impact infatile development, which is consistent with previous findings in humans.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Suckling
Body Temperature Regulation
Case-Control Studies
Depression / psychology*
Female
Grooming
Macaca fascicularis / psychology
Male
Maternal Behavior
Monkey Diseases / psychology*
Motor Activity

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2009CB918300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31271189), and the Chongqing Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. XM20120010). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.