Dataset Information

Baboons' response speed is biased by their moods.

ABSTRACT: The affect-as-information hypothesis (e.g., Schwarz & Clore, 2003), predicts that the positive or negative valence of our mood differentially affects our processing of the details of the environment. However, this hypothesis has only been tested with mood induction procedures and fairly complex cognitive tasks in humans. Here, six baboons (Papio papio) living in a social group had free access to a computerized visual search task on which they were over-trained. Trials that immediately followed a spontaneously expressed emotional behavior were analyzed, ruling out possible biases due to induction procedures. RTs following negatively valenced behaviors are slower than those following neutral and positively valenced behaviors, respectively. Thus, moods affect the performance of nonhuman primates tested in highly automatized tasks, as it does in humans during tasks with much higher cognitive demands. These findings reveal a presumably universal and adaptive mechanism by which moods influence performance in various ecological contexts.

SUBMITTER: Marzouki Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4111360 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Baboons' response speed is biased by their moods.

Marzouki Yousri Y Gullstrand Julie J Goujon Annabelle A Fagot Joël J

PloS one 20140725 7

The affect-as-information hypothesis (e.g., Schwarz & Clore, 2003), predicts that the positive or negative valence of our mood differentially affects our processing of the details of the environment. However, this hypothesis has only been tested with mood induction procedures and fairly complex cognitive tasks in humans. Here, six baboons (Papio papio) living in a social group had free access to a computerized visual search task on which they were over-trained. Trials that immediately followed a ...[more]

PMID: 25061682

Similar Datasets

Project description:Behavioral variation within and between populations and species of the genus Papio has been studied extensively, but little is known about the genetic causes of individual- or population-level differences. This study investigates the influence of genetic variation on personality (sometimes referred to as temperament) in baboons and identifies a candidate gene partially responsible for the variation in that phenotype. To accomplish these goals, we examined individual variation in response to both novel objects and an apparent novel social partner (using a mirror test) among pedigreed baboons (n = 578) from the Southwest National Primate Research Center. We investigated the frequency and duration of individual behaviors in response to novel objects and used multivariate factor analysis to identify trait-like dimensions of personality. Exploratory factor analysis identified two distinct dimensions of personality within this population. Factor 1 accounts for 46.8 % of the variance within the behavioral matrix, and consists primarily of behaviors related to the "boldness" of the subject. Factor 2 accounts for 18.8 % of the variation, and contains several "anxiety" like behaviors. Several specific behaviors, and the two personality factors, were significantly heritable, with the factors showing higher heritability than most individual behaviors. Subsequent analyses show that the behavioral reactions observed in the test protocol are associated with animals' social behavior observed later in their home social groups. Finally we used linkage analysis to map quantitative trait loci for the measured phenotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in a positional candidate gene (SNAP25) are associated with variation in one of the personality factors, and CSF levels of homovanillic acid and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol. This study documents heritable variation in personality among baboons and suggests that sequence variation in SNAP25 may influence differences in behavior and neurochemistry in these nonhuman primates.

Dataset Information

Baboons' response speed is biased by their moods.

Publications

Baboons' response speed is biased by their moods.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets