Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

Amanda M Dettmer; Stefano S K Kaburu; Elizabeth A Simpson; Annika Paukner; Valentina Sclafani; Kristen L Byers; Ashley M Murphy; Michelle Miller; Neal Marquez; Grace M Miller; Stephen J Suomi; Pier F Ferrari

doi:10.1038/ncomms11940

Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

Nat Commun. 2016 Jun 14:7:11940. doi: 10.1038/ncomms11940.

Authors

Amanda M Dettmer¹, Stefano S K Kaburu^{1

2}, Elizabeth A Simpson^{1

3}, Annika Paukner¹, Valentina Sclafani^{1

4}, Kristen L Byers¹, Ashley M Murphy¹, Michelle Miller^{1

5}, Neal Marquez^{1

6}, Grace M Miller^{1

7}, Stephen J Suomi¹, Pier F Ferrari⁸

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, Maryland 20837, USA.
² Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33146, USA.
⁴ Winnicott Research Unit, University of Reading, Reading RG 6AL, UK.
⁵ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
⁶ Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98121, USA.
⁷ Clinical and School Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA.
⁸ Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy.

Abstract

In primates, including humans, mothers engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants, with frequencies varying both within and across species. However, the impact of this variation in face-to-face interactions on infant social development is unclear. Here we report that infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta) who engaged in more neonatal face-to-face interactions with mothers have increased social interactions at 2 and 5 months. In a controlled experiment, we show that this effect is not due to physical contact alone: monkeys randomly assigned to receive additional neonatal face-to-face interactions (mutual gaze and intermittent lip-smacking) with human caregivers display increased social interest at 2 months, compared with monkeys who received only additional handling. These studies suggest that face-to-face interactions from birth promote young primate social interest and competency.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

Age Factors
Animal Communication*
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Facial Expression
Female
Humans
Macaca mulatta / growth & development
Macaca mulatta / psychology*
Male
Maternal Behavior
Mothers / psychology*
Social Behavior*

Grants and funding

P01 HD064653/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States