Talbot Catherine F, Garner Joseph P, Maness Alyssa C, McCowan Brenda, Capitanio John P, Parker Karen J
California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA.
Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Autism Res. 2020 Sep;13(9):1465-1475. doi: 10.1002/aur.2335. Epub 2020 Jul 17.
Naturally low-social rhesus macaques exhibit social impairments with direct relevance to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To more efficiently identify low-social individuals in a large colony, we exploited, refined, and psychometrically assessed the macaque Social Responsiveness Scale (mSRS), an instrument previously derived from the human ASD screening tool. We performed quantitative social behavior assessments and mSRS ratings on a total of N = 349 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) housed in large, outdoor corrals. In one cohort (N = 116), we conducted inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities, and in a second cohort (N = 233), we evaluated the convergent construct and predictive validity of the mSRS-Revised (mSRS-R). Only 17 of the original 36 items demonstrated inter-rater and test-retest reliability, resulting in the 17-item mSRS-R. The mSRS-R showed strong validity: mSRS-R scores robustly predicted monkeys' social behavior frequencies in home corrals. Monkeys that scored 1.5 standard deviations from the mean on nonsocial behavior likewise exhibited significantly more autistic-like traits, and mSRS-R scores predicted individuals' social classification (low-social vs. high-social) with 96% accuracy (likelihood ratio chi-square = 25.07; P < 0.0001). These findings indicate that the mSRS-R is a reliable, valid, and sensitive measure of social functioning, and like the human SRS, can be used as a high-throughput screening tool to identify socially impaired individuals in the general population. LAY SUMMARY: Variation in autistic traits can be measured in humans using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Here, we revised this scale for rhesus macaques (i.e., the mSRS-R), and showed that macaques exhibit individual differences in mSRS-R scores, and at the behavioral extremes, low-social vs. high-social monkeys exhibit more autistic-like traits. These results suggest that the mSRS-R can be used as a screening tool to rapidly and accurately identify low-social monkeys in the general population. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1465-1475. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
天生社交能力低下的恒河猴表现出与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）直接相关的社交障碍。为了在一个大群体中更有效地识别社交能力低下的个体，我们对猕猴社交反应量表（mSRS）进行了开发、完善和心理测量评估，该量表先前源自人类ASD筛查工具。我们对总共N = 349只饲养在大型户外围栏中的恒河猴（猕猴）进行了定量社交行为评估和mSRS评分。在一个队列（N = 116）中，我们进行了评分者间信度和重测信度评估，在第二个队列（N = 233）中，我们评估了修订后的mSRS（mSRS-R）的聚合效度和预测效度。原始的36个项目中只有17个显示出评分者间信度和重测信度，从而形成了17项的mSRS-R。mSRS-R显示出很强的效度：mSRS-R分数有力地预测了猴子在家庭围栏中的社交行为频率。在非社交行为上得分与平均值相差1.5个标准差的猴子同样表现出明显更多的自闭症样特征，并且mSRS-R分数以96%的准确率预测个体的社交分类（社交能力低下与社交能力高）（似然比卡方 = 25.07；P < 0.0001）。这些发现表明，mSRS-R是一种可靠、有效且敏感的社交功能测量工具，并且与人类SRS一样，可以用作高通量筛查工具来识别普通群体中社交障碍个体。简要概述：自闭症特征的差异可以在人类中使用社交反应量表（SRS）进行测量。在此，我们为恒河猴修订了该量表（即mSRS-R），并表明恒河猴在mSRS-R分数上存在个体差异，并且在行为极端情况下，社交能力低下与社交能力高的猴子表现出更多的自闭症样特征。这些结果表明，mSRS-R可以用作筛查工具，以快速准确地识别普通群体中社交能力低下的猴子。《自闭症研究》2020年，13卷：1465 - 1475页。© 2020国际自闭症研究协会，威利期刊公司
