Mandalaywala Tara M, Coyne Sean P
Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Psychology, Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, PA, USA.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2025 Feb;252:104647. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104647. Epub 2024 Dec 10.
Attentional bias to threat is an adaptive response to the presence of threat and danger in the environment (Haselton et al., 2009; Pollak, 2008). Attentional bias to threat is present in both human and nonhuman primates (e.g., Mandalaywala, Parker, & Maestripieri, 2014) and attentional bias to threat is exacerbated during periods of acute stress in rhesus macaque adults (Bethell et al., 2012a,b). Here, we build on this extant work to assess whether 5-month-old infant rhesus macaques, previously believed to be too young to express attentional bias to threat, might actually demonstrate attentional bias in response to an acute stressor. At approximately 5 months of age, free-ranging rhesus macaque infants on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico (N = 44) were briefly separated from their social group and underwent a maternal separation test, a validated stressor shown to induce anxiety in infant monkeys (Sánchez et al., 2001). We assessed their behavioral (Temperament Task) and cognitive (Threat perception/Vigilance for Threat task) reactivity. Across these two reactivity tests, infants could be classified as "vigilant-fighters"-trying to escape and paying more attention to a threatening than a neutral stimulus-or as "avoidant-freezers"-staying still and quiet and avoiding looking at the threatening stimulus in favor of the neutral stimulus. This behavioral and cognitive phenotype was related to infants' early life experiences, including exposure to early life adversity, and suggests both that attention to threat can be present as young as 5 months of age, and that infants quickly learn behavioral and cognitive strategies for coping with their particular circumstances.
对威胁的注意偏向是对环境中存在的威胁和危险的一种适应性反应（哈斯尔顿等人，2009年；波拉克，2008年）。对威胁的注意偏向在人类和非人类灵长类动物中都存在（例如，曼德勒瓦拉、帕克和梅斯特里皮耶里，2014年），并且在恒河猴成年个体的急性应激期间，对威胁的注意偏向会加剧（贝瑟尔等人，2012年a、b）。在此，我们基于这项现有研究来评估5个月大的恒河猴婴儿，之前认为它们太小而无法表现出对威胁的注意偏向，是否实际上会在面对急性应激源时表现出注意偏向。在大约5个月大时，波多黎各圣地亚哥岛自由放养的恒河猴婴儿（N = 44）被短暂地与它们的社会群体分开，并接受了母婴分离测试，这是一种经过验证的应激源，已证明会在幼猴中诱发焦虑（桑切斯等人，2001年）。我们评估了它们的行为（气质任务）和认知（威胁感知/对威胁的警觉任务）反应性。在这两项反应性测试中，婴儿可以被分类为“警惕战斗者”——试图逃脱并对威胁性刺激比中性刺激给予更多关注——或者“回避冻结者”——保持静止和安静，并避免看向威胁性刺激而偏好中性刺激。这种行为和认知表型与婴儿的早期生活经历有关，包括接触早期生活逆境，这表明对威胁的关注在5个月大时就可能存在，并且婴儿会迅速学习行为和认知策略来应对他们的特定情况。
