Previous research on this project indicates that the nature of the attachment figure has a pervasive and abiding influence on the rhesus monkey's basic stance toward the environment and its ways of coping with change. Monkeys raised with unresponsive substitute mothers are passive in their approach to novel environmental events. In such situations, locomotion, vocalization, manual and visual contacts with the environment, defecation, heart rate, and plasma cortisol are relatively low. In contrast, monkeys raised with responsive mother substitutes are active in their approach to novel environmental events. Locomotion, vocalization, manual and visual contacts with the environment, defecation, heart rate, and plasma cortisol are relatively high. Seemingly, a monkey raised with an inert surrogate, which makes no demands and occasions no surprises, extrapolates from this experience to its relations with the world in general, whereas a monkey raised with a more dynamic attachment figure, which requires that it make active efforts to accommodate to changing circumstances, approaches new situations as though they were potentially amendable to its control. Many research possibilities are raised by these findings. An immediate need, however, is to document what appears to be the major distinction between rearing groups, namely, the organization of their responses to stressful situations, particularly with regard to the development and nature of intergroup differences in stress physiology. This is the primary objective of the proposed research. Monkeys are raised for the first three years of life with living mother substitutes or with inanimate surrogates. Effects of rearing conditions on sympathetic and parasympathetic interactions, on endocrine profiles, and on behavior are determined by measuring activity under normal (nonstressed) conditions, and in response to a variety of experimental procedures. The onset, development, generality, and persistence of intergroup differences in behavior and physiological profiles will be established by collecting longitudinal data over a broad range of situations.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD006367-17
Application #
3310490
Study Section
Biopsychology Study Section (BPO)
Project Start
1976-12-01
Project End
1990-03-31
Budget Start
1989-04-01
Budget End
1990-03-31
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Davis
Department
Type
Schools of Veterinary Medicine
DUNS #
094878337
City
Davis
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
95618