Advisor Information
Jeffrey French
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
1-3-2019 9:00 AM
End Date
1-3-2019 10:15 AM
Abstract
The quality of bonds between mates is variable and can be operationally defined using affiliative measures (e.g., sexual solicitations, amount of time spent near another individual). The development of an attachment between mates is regulated by biological and neurobiological factors. Specifically, the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is associated with increases in social bonding and positive social interactions. We investigated how chronic treatment with OT, an OT antagonist (OTA), or a control during the initial 3 weeks of pairing in marmoset monkeys altered patterns of social interactions. We assessed how marmosets behaved in a testing paradigm in which they could see, but not reach, a social partner. We repeated this test twice: once with their mate and once with an opposite-sex stranger. We also repeated this test at two time points: the first was after three weeks of bond formation, and the second was after a five-day social separation from their mate. This resulted in a total of 4 “dyad” tests. While OT manipulation did not alter patterns of affiliative interactions in the dyad test setting, sex differences between male and female marmosets were shown. While female marmosets did not show different patterns of sexual solicitations dependent on dyad time point (pairing vs isolation), male marmosets sexually solicited after the isolation more frequently toward their mate than the stranger. Together, these findings highlight the importance of sex as a variable in assessing social behavior.
Male Marmosets Display Increased Sociosexual Behavior Toward Their Mate After Separation
The quality of bonds between mates is variable and can be operationally defined using affiliative measures (e.g., sexual solicitations, amount of time spent near another individual). The development of an attachment between mates is regulated by biological and neurobiological factors. Specifically, the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is associated with increases in social bonding and positive social interactions. We investigated how chronic treatment with OT, an OT antagonist (OTA), or a control during the initial 3 weeks of pairing in marmoset monkeys altered patterns of social interactions. We assessed how marmosets behaved in a testing paradigm in which they could see, but not reach, a social partner. We repeated this test twice: once with their mate and once with an opposite-sex stranger. We also repeated this test at two time points: the first was after three weeks of bond formation, and the second was after a five-day social separation from their mate. This resulted in a total of 4 “dyad” tests. While OT manipulation did not alter patterns of affiliative interactions in the dyad test setting, sex differences between male and female marmosets were shown. While female marmosets did not show different patterns of sexual solicitations dependent on dyad time point (pairing vs isolation), male marmosets sexually solicited after the isolation more frequently toward their mate than the stranger. Together, these findings highlight the importance of sex as a variable in assessing social behavior.