Tolerant Barbary macaques maintain juvenile levels of social attention in old age, but despotic rhesus macaques do not.

ABSTRACT: Complex social life is thought to be a major driver of complex cognition in primates, but few studies have directly tested the relationship between a given primate species' social system and their social cognitive skills. We experimentally compared life span patterns of a foundational social cognitive skill (following another's gaze) in tolerant Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus, and despotic rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta. Semi-free-ranging monkeys (N = 80 individuals from each species) followed gaze more in test trials where an actor looked up compared to control trials. However, species differed in ontogenetic trajectories: both exhibited high rates of gaze following as juveniles, but rhesus monkeys exhibited declines in social attention with age, whereas Barbary m

SUBMITTER: Rosati AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5687259 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature