Intranasal oxytocin selectively modulates the behavior of rhesus monkeys in an expression matching task.

ABSTRACT: Although the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is thought to regulate prosocial behavior in mammals, there is considerable debate as to how intranasal OT influences primate behavior. The aim of this study was to determine whether intranasal OT has a general anxiolytic effect on the performance of rhesus monkeys tasked with matching face stimuli, or a more selective effect on their behavior towards aversive facial expressions. To this end, we developed an innovative delayed match-to-sample task where the exact same trials could be used to assess either a monkey's ability to match facial expressions or facial identities. If OT has a general affect on behavior, then performance in both tasks should be altered by the administration of OT. We tested four male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in both th

SUBMITTER: Taubert J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6811679 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature