Rhesus monkeys found to see faces in inanimate objects too

August 28, 2017 by Bob Yirka report

A team of researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has found that rhesus monkeys, like humans, recognize face-like traits in inanimate objects. In their study published in the journal Current Biology, the researchers describe experiments they carried out with monkeys looking at photographs and what they learned from them.

Humans are notorious for seeing face-like characteristics in inanimate objects—the likeness of an old woman in a sliced tomato, Jesus in a potato chip, etc. Such recognition is known as pareidolia, and has been studied extensively in humans. But does it also happen with animals? That is what the researchers with this new effort sought to learn. They chose a relatively obvious animal for a subject, rhesus monkeys. Not only are they more human-like than most other animals, but they are also very social, which prior work with humans has suggested is very strongly tied to pareidolia.

The team worked with five of the monkeys, showing them pairs of pictures on a computer screen while timing how long they looked at them. Prior research has shown that rhesus monkeys, like humans, tend to stare longer at faces than at other objects. The monkeys were shown pictures of objects that a group of humans had already approved as having face-like characteristics. They were also shown pictures of similar objects without face-like characteristics. And for comparison, they were also shown pictures of the faces of other rhesus monkeys.

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Female rhesus macaque calls may reflect familiarity rather than relatedness

August 31, 2016

An acoustic analysis showed that similarities between contact calls - known as coos - of female rhesus macaques may be explained by familiarity rather than relatedness, according a study published August 31, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Dana Pfefferle from the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the German Primate Center, Germany, Kurt Hammerschmidt from the Cognitive Ethology Laboratory of the German Primate Center, Germany, and colleagues.

Previous work has suggested that non-human primates can recognize the coos of kin, though few have distinguished between relatedness and familiarity. To investigate whether call similarities actually reflect relatedness, Pfefferle, Hammerschmidt, and colleagues recorded and analyzed the acoustic structure of coos from 67 adult female rhesus macaques in a longstanding colony on the island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. The degree of relatedness was determined using the colony's long-term genetic database, and familiarity was determined using factors including age, group- and matrilineal membership.

Contrary to their expectations, the researchers found coo similarity was predicted by familiarity, but not by kinship: coo call structure was similar in females that were close in age or that shared group and matrilineal membership. This suggests that although these calls appear largely innate, experience and frequent social interaction have more impact on acoustic similarity than genetic background. To control for the strong effect of familiarity on the acoustic structure of calls, the researchers recommend that future studies focus on similarities between unfamiliar kin.

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Body odor sets female rhesus monkeys apart

Rhesus macaques use their sense of smell to identify members of different social groups and to confirm hierarchy

Date: November 2, 2015

Source: Springer

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) make use of their sense of smell to distinguish between members of their own and other social groups, according to new research, led by Stefanie Henkel (University of Leipzig, Germany), published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Social animals use their olfactory ability to distinguish between members of their own species. This generally helps them defend their territories, or to find sleeping sites or mating partners better. Primates, especially Old World monkeys and apes, are said to have a poor sense of smell, but researchers are now starting to realize that olfaction in these animals may play a greater role in their social lives than previously thought.

In contrast to previous studies on olfaction, the present study used a species which does not have any distinct scent glands and does not perform scent marking typical for olfactory communication among conspecifics. To investigate the role of smell in rhesus macaques, Henkel et al. conducted a study on the island Cayo Santiago in Puerto Rico (USA) during the non-mating season. The experiment was designed to explore whether the monkeys can discriminate between body odors of female group members and those of females from different social groups. Body odor samples collected from 33 adult females were placed in individual aerated metal containers. The researchers presented these odor samples to 74 unrelated conspecifics, as identified from extensive pedigree data available for this population, and observed their behavioral response.

Read on …

Monkeys can learn to see themselves in the mirror

Date:

January 8, 2015

Source:

Cell Press

Summary:

Unlike humans and great apes, rhesus monkeys don't realize when they look in a mirror that it is their own face looking back at them. But, according to a new report, that doesn't mean they can't learn. What's more, once rhesus monkeys in the study developed mirror self-recognition, they continued to use mirrors spontaneously to explore parts of their bodies they normally don't see.

Continued ...

Eating Fewer Calories May Help Monkeys Live Longer

By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe, Staff Writer | April 01, 2014 12:07pm ET

Eating a calorie-restricted diet may increase longevity and improve health in rhesus monkeys, a new study suggests.

The average life span of the animals in captivity is about 26 years, but more than half of themonkeys in the study on calorie-restricted diets lived to at least age 30. The study also found that the animals not on calorie-restricted diets had nearly triple the risk of age-related disease, compared with those in the calorie-restricted group.

The results suggests that calorie restriction could improve longevity and health in other primates, including humans, the researchers said.

Continued

Rhesus Monkeys Cannot Hear the Beat in Music

Dec. 13, 2012 — Beat induction, the ability to pick up regularity -- the beat -- from a varying rhythm, is not an ability that rhesus monkeys possess. These are the findings of researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which have recently been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

The research conducted by Henkjan Honing, professor of Music Cognition at the UvA, and a team of neurobiologists headed by Hugo Merchant from the UNAM, shows that rhesus monkeys cannot detect the beat in music, although they are able to detect rhythmic groups in music. The results of this research support the view that beat induction is a uniquely human, cognitive skill and contribute to a further understanding of the biology and evolution of human music.

Monkey versus human

It seems a trivial skill: children that clap along with a song, musicians that tap their foot to the music, or a stage full of line dancers that dance in synchrony. And in way, it is indeed trivial that most people can easily pick up a regular pulse from the music or judge whether the music speeds up or slows down. However, the realisation that perceiving this regularity in music allows us to dance and make music together makes it less trivial a phenomenon.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121213084933.htm

THE MYSTERY MONKEY OF TAMPA BAY

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A monkey that has eluded capture for nearly two years has seemingly put down roots in a family's backyard.

The Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/AhT6Ol) reports that the rhesus macaque monkey lives in the backyard of a secluded Pinellas County home of a retired couple, their elderly mother and an aging cat named Koko. The family feeds the monkey and the animal is calm and friendly.
The newspaper saw the primate but is not revealing his location.

In 2009, he became known as the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay, after traveling from Pasco County to Clearwater and eventually Pinellas County. He was shot repeatedly by trappers' dart guns and featured on Comedy Central. A Nashville country duo wrote a song about him. He has more than 82,000 fans on Facebook.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/11/2635990/mystery-monkey-of-tampa-bay-puts.html#storylink=cpy

Baby Monkeys With 6 Genomes Are Scientific First

They look like ordinary baby rhesus macaques, but Hex, Roku and Chimero are the world's first chimeric monkeys, each with cells from the genomes of as many as six rhesus monkeys. 

Until now research on so-called chimeric animals, or those that have cells with different genomes, has been limited to mice; a recent procedure produced mice using cells from two dads. 

The researchers turned to monkeys for more insight into the capabilities of embryonic stem cells. Most experiments on stem cell therapies are based on mice, and the researchers wanted to understand whether primate embryonic stem cells respond the same way as those of mice do. 

To create the chimeric monkeys, researchers essentially glued together cells from individual rhesus monkey embryos and then implanting these mixed embryos into mama monkeys. 

Read more:  http://www.livescience.com/17771-chimera-monkeys-genomes.html

Monkeys in India take over hospital after mastering automatic doors

Patients at an Indian hospital have been receiving some surprise visitors after monkeys learned how to operate its automatic doors.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi recently installed a new entry system – with unforeseen consequences.

Local rhesus macaque monkeys soon worked out how to use the motion-censor doors and have since been running amok in the wards, kitchens and corridors.

They have terrorised patients in the neurosurgery department and recovery rooms, stealing food, playing with medical equipment, attacking staff and generally causing chaos.

An unnamed doctor told the Times of India about one of his encounters with the red-bottomed monkeys.

'I was at the patient recovery room when a nurse cried out that a monkey had sneaked in,' he said.

'The monkey had somehow entered the main corridor and was hiding in the false roof. As soon as the security guard moved away, it jumped inside. The doors open once they detect any movement, and this is how the simian got in.'

With an average of one monkey bite case in the hospital every week, authorities have taken steps to scare off the macaques.

They have hired two larger monkeys - grey langurs – to chase them away.

Killing or trapping the macaques is not an option, due to their association with the Hindu deity Hanuman.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/868820-monkeys-in-india-take-over-hospital-after-mastering-automatic-doors

Rhesus Monkeys Appear to Have a Form of Self-Awareness Not Previously Attributed to Them, Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2011) — In the first study of its kind in an animal species that has not passed a critical test of self-recognition, cognitive psychologist Justin J. Couchman of the University at Buffalo has demonstrated that rhesus monkeys appear to have a sense of self-agency -- the ability to understand that they are the cause of certain actions -- and possess a form of self-awareness previously not attributed to them.

The study, which will be published July 6 in Biology Letters, a journal of the Royal Society, may illuminate apparent self-awareness deficits in humans with autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and developmental disabilities.

Rhesus monkeys are one of the best-known species of Old World monkeys, and have been used extensively in medical and biological research aimed at creating vaccines for rabies, smallpox and polio and drugs to manage HIV/AIDS; analyzing stem cells and sequencing the genome. Humans have sent them into space, cloned them and planted jellyfish genes in them.

Couchman, a PhD candidate at UB, is an instructor at UB and at the State University of New York College at Fredonia. He points out that previous research has shown that rhesus monkeys, like apes and dolphins, have metacognition, or the ability to monitor their own mental states. Nevertheless, the monkeys consistently fail the mirror self-recognition test, which assesses whether animals can recognize themselves in a mirror, and this is an important measure self-awareness.

"We know that in humans, the sense of self-agency is closely related to self-awareness," Couchman says, "and that it results from monitoring the relationship between pieces of intentional, sensorimotor and perceptual information.

"Based on previous findings in comparative metacognition research, we thought that even though they fail the mirror test, rhesus monkeys might have some other form of self-awareness. In this study we looked at whether the monkeys have a sense of self agency, that is, the understanding that some actions are the consequence of their own intentions."

For the study, Couchman trained 40 UB undergraduates and four male rhesus monkeys, housed in the Language Research Center of Georgia State University, to move a computer cursor with a joystick while a distractor cursor partially matched their movements. After moving the cursor, both humans and monkeys were asked to identify the computer cursor that they controlled -- the one that matched their movements and intentions. Both species were able to select the cursor they controlled from an array of choices, including the distractor cursor, at greater than chance levels.

"This suggests that the monkeys, like humans, have some understanding of self agency," says Couchman. "This awareness or implicit sense that it is 'me' who is presently executing a bodily movement or thinking thoughts is an important form of self-awareness."

Couchman says that because this is the first such demonstration of self-agency in a species that has not passed the mirror self-recognition test, the results may shed light on apparent self-awareness deficits in humans.

"Mirror self-recognition is developmentally delayed in autistic children and absent in many who are mentally retarded, have Alzheimer's disease or are schizophrenic. It is not clear why this deficit occurs, but like rhesus monkeys," he says, "these groups may simply have biases against mirrors.

"If, when studied, such individuals attempted to distinguish self-generated actions from partially altered actions in the paradigm reported in this study," Couchman say, "it might offer information as to whether the breakdown in their mirror self-recognition is due to a difficulty in processing certain kinds of perceptual or cognitive information."

Decades of psychological research has established that the concept of agency implies an active organism, one who desires, makes plans and carries out actions. The sense of agency and its scientific study is significant in the study of social cognition, moral reasoning and psychopathology because of its implications for intention, consciousness, responsibility, desire and development.

"Self agency also plays a pivotal role in cognitive development," Couchman says.

"It is linked to metacognition, the first stages of self-awareness and theory of mind (understanding the mental states of others). These abilities give humans the sense that they are entities separate from the external world, and allow them to interact with other agents and the environment in intelligent ways. If rhesus monkeys are able to recognize themselves as agents that cause certain actions," he says, "then they probably have a similar understanding that they are entities independent from the environment."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110705183630.htm