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Festante F, Rayson H, Paukner A, Kaburu SSK, Toschi G, Fox NA, Ferrari PF. Oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior and related neural responses in infant macaques at-risk for compromised social development. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 48:100950. [PMID: 33831822 PMCID: PMC8042434 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2020] [Revised: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Although positive effects of oxytocin (OT) on social functioning are well-demonstrated, little is known about the mechanisms through which OT may drive early social development, or its therapeutic efficacy in infancy. To address these critical issues, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on neural (EEG) and behavioral responses during observation of live facial gestures in infant macaques with limited social exposure (i.e. nursery-reared). Three key findings were revealed. First, OT increased alpha suppression over posterior scalp regions during observation of facial gestures but not non-biological movement, suggesting that OT targets self-other matching and attentional cortical networks involved in social perception from very early infancy. Second, OT increased infant production of matching facial gestures and attention towards the most socially-relevant facial stimuli, both behaviors typically silenced by early social deprivation. Third, infants with higher cortisol levels appeared to benefit the most from OT, displaying greater improvements in prosocial behaviors after OT administration. Altogether, these findings suggest that OT promotes prosocial behaviors and associated neural responses likely impacted by early social adversity, and demonstrate the potential of OT administration to ameliorate social difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental and early-emerging psychiatric disorders, at a developmental stage when brain plasticity is greatest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrizia Festante
- Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128, Pisa, Italy; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| | - Holly Rayson
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon, Bron, Cedex, 69675, France
| | - Annika Paukner
- Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK
| | - Stefano S K Kaburu
- Department of Biomedical Science & Physiology, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UK
| | - Giulia Toschi
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, 43125, Parma, Italy
| | - Nathan A Fox
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA
| | - Pier Francesco Ferrari
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon, Bron, Cedex, 69675, France; Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, 43125, Parma, Italy.
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Paukner A, Capitanio JP, Blozis SA. A new look at neurobehavioral development in rhesus monkey neonates (Macaca mulatta). Am J Primatol 2020; 82:e23122. [PMID: 32187719 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2019] [Revised: 01/14/2020] [Accepted: 03/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) evaluates a newborn infant's autonomic, motor, state, temperament, and social-attentional systems, which can help to identify infants at risk of developmental problems. Given the prevalence of rhesus monkeys being used as an animal model for human development, here we aimed to validate a standardized test battery modeled after the NBAS for use with nonhuman primates called the Infant Behavioral Assessment Scale (IBAS), employing exploratory structural equation modeling using a large sample of rhesus macaque neonates (n = 1,056). Furthermore, we examined the repeated assessments of the common factors within the same infants to describe any changes in performance over time, taking into account two independent variables (infant sex and rearing condition) that can potentially affect developmental outcomes. Results revealed three factors (Orientation, State Control, and Motor Activity) that all increased over the 1st month of life. While infant sex did not have an effect on any factor, nursery-rearing led to higher scores on Orientation but lower scores on State Control and Motor Activity. These results validate the IBAS as a reliable and valuable research tool for use with rhesus macaque infants and suggest that differences in rearing conditions can affect developmental trajectories and potentially pre-expose infants to heightened levels of cognitive and emotional deficiencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Paukner
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland.,Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
| | - John P Capitanio
- California National Primate Research Center and Psychology Department, University of California, Davis, California
| | - Shelley A Blozis
- Psychology Department, University of California, Davis, California
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Lanata A, Guidi A, Greco A, Valenza G, Di Francesco F, Scilingo EP. Automatic recognition of pleasant content of odours through ElectroEncephaloGraphic activity analysis. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2017; 2016:4519-4522. [PMID: 28269281 DOI: 10.1109/embc.2016.7591732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
This study presents a machine learning approach applied to ElectroEnchephaloGraphic (EEG) response in a group of subjects when exposed to a controlled olfactory stimulation experiment. In the literature, in fact, there are controversial results on EEG response to odorants. This study proposes a robust leave-one-subject-out classification method to recognize features extracted from EEG signals belonging to pleasant or unpleasant olfactory stimulation classes. An accuracy of 75% has been achieved in a group of 32 subjects. Moreover a set of features extracted from lateral electrodes emphasized that right and left hemispheres behave differently when the subjects are exposed to pleasant or unpleasant odours stimuli.
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Cannon EN, Simpson EA, Fox NA, Vanderwert RE, Woodward AL, Ferrari PF. Relations between infants' emerging reach-grasp competence and event-related desynchronization in EEG. Dev Sci 2016; 19:50-62. [PMID: 25754667 PMCID: PMC7470427 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2013] [Accepted: 12/17/2014] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Recent reports of similar patterns of brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram: EEG) during action execution and observation, recorded from scalp locations over motor-related regions in infants and adults, have raised the possibility that two foundational abilities--controlling one's own intentional actions and perceiving others' actions--may be integrally related during ontogeny. However, to our knowledge, there are no published reports of the relations between developments in motor skill (i.e. recording actual motor skill performance) and EEG during both action execution and action observation. In the present study we collected EEG from 21 9-month-olds who were given opportunities to reach for toys and who also observed an experimenter reach for toys. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) was computed from the EEG during the reaching events. We assessed infants' reaching-grasping competence, including reach latency, errors, preshaping of the hand, and bimanual reaches, and found that desynchronization recorded in scalp electrodes over motor-related regions during action observation was associated with action competence during execution. Infants who were more competent reachers, compared to less competent reachers, exhibited greater ERD while observing reaching-grasping. These results provide initial evidence for an early emerging neural system integrating one's own actions with the perception of others' actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin N Cannon
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Simpson
- Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Italy
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, Poolesville, USA
| | - Nathan A Fox
- Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, USA
| | - Ross E Vanderwert
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, USA
| | | | - Pier F Ferrari
- Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Italy
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Vanderwert RE, Simpson EA, Paukner A, Suomi SJ, Fox NA, Ferrari PF. Early Social Experience Affects Neural Activity to Affiliative Facial Gestures in Newborn Nonhuman Primates. Dev Neurosci 2015; 37:243-52. [PMID: 26022835 DOI: 10.1159/000381538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2014] [Accepted: 03/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
A fundamental issue in cognitive neuroscience is how the brain encodes the actions and intentions of others. The discovery of an action-production-perception mechanism underpinning such a capacity advanced our knowledge of how these processes occur; however, no study has examined how the early postnatal environment may shape action-production-perception. Here, we examined the effects of social experience on action-production-perception in 3-day-old rhesus macaques that were raised either with or without their biological mothers. We measured the neonatal imitation skills and brain electrical activity responses, while infants produced and observed facial gestures. We hypothesized that early social experiences may shape brain activity, as assessed via electroencephalogram suppression in the α band (5-7 Hz in infants, known as the mu rhythm) during action observation, and lead to more proficient imitation skills. Consistent with this hypothesis, the infants reared by their mothers were more likely to imitate lipsmacking (LS) - a natural, affiliative gesture - and exhibited greater mu rhythm desynchronization while viewing LS gestures than the nursery-reared infants. These effects were not found in response to tongue protrusion, a meaningless gesture, or a nonsocial control. These data suggest that socially enriched early experiences in the first days after birth increase brain sensitivity to socially relevant actions. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ross E Vanderwert
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Mass., USA
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Marshall PJ, Meltzoff AN. Neural mirroring mechanisms and imitation in human infants. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2014; 369:20130620. [PMID: 24778387 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 126] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Studying human infants will increase our understanding of the nature, origins and function of neural mirroring mechanisms. Human infants are prolific imitators. Infant imitation indicates observation-execution linkages in the brain prior to language and protracted learning. Investigations of neural aspects of these linkages in human infants have focused on the sensorimotor mu rhythm in the electroencephalogram, which occurs in the alpha frequency range over central electrode sites. Recent results show that the infant mu rhythm is desynchronized during action execution as well as action observation. Current work is elucidating properties of the infant mu rhythm and how it may relate to prelinguistic action processing and social understanding. Here, we consider this neuroscience research in relation to developmental psychological theory, particularly the 'Like-Me' framework, which holds that one of the chief cognitive tasks of the human infant is to map the similarity between self and other. We elucidate the value of integrating neuroscience findings with behavioural studies of infant imitation, and the reciprocal benefit of examining mirroring mechanisms from an ontogenetic perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter J Marshall
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, , 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
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