Checking behavior in rhesus monkeys is related to anxiety and frontal activity.
Sci Rep. 2017-03-28; 7(1):
DOI: 10.1038/srep45267
Read on PubMed
1. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 28;7:45267. doi: 10.1038/srep45267.
Checking behavior in rhesus monkeys is related to anxiety and frontal activity.
Bosc M(1)(2), Bioulac B(1)(2)(3), Langbour N(4), Nguyen TH(1)(2), Goillandeau
M(1)(2), Dehay B(1)(2), Burbaud P(1)(2)(3), Michelet T(1)(2)(5).
Author information:
(1)Université de Bordeaux, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR 5293,
F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
(2)CNRS, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, UMR 5293, F-33000 Bordeaux,
France.
(3)CHU de Bordeaux, Service d’explorations fonctionnelles du système nerveux,
F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
(4)Centre Hospitalier Henri-Laborit, 370, avenue Jacques-Cœur, F-86021, Poitiers,
France.
(5)CNRS, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine, UMR
5287, F-33000 Bordeaux, France.
When facing doubt, humans can go back over a performed action in order to
optimize subsequent performance. The present study aimed to establish and
characterize physiological doubt and checking behavior in non-human primates
(NHP). We trained two rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a newly designed
“Check-or-Go” task that allows the animal to repeatedly check and change the
availability of a reward before making the final decision towards obtaining that
reward. By manipulating the ambiguity of a visual cue in which the reward status
is embedded, we successfully modulated animal certainty and created doubt that
led the animals to check. This voluntary checking behavior was further
characterized by making EEG recordings and measuring correlated changes in
salivary cortisol. Our data show that monkeys have the metacognitive ability to
express voluntary checking behavior similar to that observed in humans, which
depends on uncertainty monitoring, relates to anxiety and involves brain frontal
areas.
DOI: 10.1038/srep45267
PMCID: PMC5368664
PMID: 28349919