Brunelli Rebecca L, Blake Jennifer, Willits Neil, Rommeck Ina, McCowan Brenda
Brain, Mind and Behavior Unit, California National Primate Research Center, Davis, California, USA; Animal Behavior Graduate Group, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Animal Care Unit, California National Primate Research Center, Davis, California, USA.
J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2014 Sep;53(5):464-71.
Nursery-reared infants have several behavioral and physiologic differences from their mother-reared counterparts. We investigated whether a response-contingent surrogate mitigated some of those differences by decreasing fearfulness and partner-clinging and increasing environmental exploration in nursery-reared infants continuously paired with a peer. Six nursery-reared infant rhesus macaques (in pairs) were given a mechanical responsive surrogate (RS), and 6 (in pairs) were given an identical but nonresponsive surrogate (NRS). The 2 treatment groups were compared and then combined into a single group of all 12 of surrogate-exposed animals (CS) that was compared with a nonsurrogate control group (NS) of 10 nursery-reared infants. Results showed significant differences between CS and NS infants but no significant differences between the RS and NRS infants. As compared with NS infants, CS infants showed less partner-clinging, less affiliation directed toward only partner, and more foraging and tactile-oral exploration of the environment. These advantageous effects support additional research to develop improved surrogate and the implementation of surrogate programs for nursery-reared infants.
由保育箱饲养的婴儿在行为和生理方面与由母亲抚养的婴儿存在一些差异。我们研究了一种反应性替代物是否通过减少恐惧和对同伴的依恋，并增加与同伴持续配对的保育箱饲养婴儿对环境的探索，来减轻其中的一些差异。六对保育箱饲养的恒河猴婴儿被给予一个机械反应性替代物（RS），另外六对（成对）被给予一个相同但无反应的替代物（NRS）。对这两个治疗组进行比较，然后将它们合并成一个由所有12只接触替代物的动物组成的单一组（CS），并与一个由10只保育箱饲养婴儿组成的非替代物对照组（NS）进行比较。结果显示，CS组和NS组婴儿之间存在显著差异，但RS组和NRS组婴儿之间没有显著差异。与NS组婴儿相比，CS组婴儿表现出更少的对同伴的依恋、更少仅针对同伴的亲密行为，以及更多对环境的觅食和触觉-口腔探索。这些有利影响支持开展更多研究以开发改进的替代物，并为保育箱饲养的婴儿实施替代物项目。
