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Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression

Primates (including humans) scratch when stressed. So far, such scratching has been seen as a by-product of physiological processes associated with stress, and attributed proximate, regulatory function. However, it is possible that others could use this relationship between scratching and stress as...

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Autores principales: Whitehouse, Jamie, Micheletta, Jérôme, Waller, Bridget M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5594025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28894109
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10754-8
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author Whitehouse, Jamie
Micheletta, Jérôme
Waller, Bridget M.
author_facet Whitehouse, Jamie
Micheletta, Jérôme
Waller, Bridget M.
author_sort Whitehouse, Jamie
collection PubMed
description Primates (including humans) scratch when stressed. So far, such scratching has been seen as a by-product of physiological processes associated with stress, and attributed proximate, regulatory function. However, it is possible that others could use this relationship between scratching and stress as an indication of the animal’s stress state, and thus scratching could potentially have social function. As a test of this theory, we measured the production of, and social responses to scratching in a group of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Firstly, we found that the likelihood of scratching was greater around periods of heightened social stress, such as being in proximity to high-ranking individuals, or non-friends. Secondly, when macaques scratched, subsequent interactions were less likely to be aggressive and more likely to be affiliative. Potential attackers may avoid attacking stressed individuals as stressed individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their state of stress (rendering aggression risky and/or unnecessary). Observable stress behaviour could therefore have additional adaptive value by reducing the potential for escalated aggression, benefiting both senders and receivers by facilitating social cohesion. This basic ability to recognise stress in others could also be an important component in the evolution of social cognition such as empathy.
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spelling pubmed-55940252017-09-14 Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression Whitehouse, Jamie Micheletta, Jérôme Waller, Bridget M. Sci Rep Article Primates (including humans) scratch when stressed. So far, such scratching has been seen as a by-product of physiological processes associated with stress, and attributed proximate, regulatory function. However, it is possible that others could use this relationship between scratching and stress as an indication of the animal’s stress state, and thus scratching could potentially have social function. As a test of this theory, we measured the production of, and social responses to scratching in a group of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Firstly, we found that the likelihood of scratching was greater around periods of heightened social stress, such as being in proximity to high-ranking individuals, or non-friends. Secondly, when macaques scratched, subsequent interactions were less likely to be aggressive and more likely to be affiliative. Potential attackers may avoid attacking stressed individuals as stressed individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their state of stress (rendering aggression risky and/or unnecessary). Observable stress behaviour could therefore have additional adaptive value by reducing the potential for escalated aggression, benefiting both senders and receivers by facilitating social cohesion. This basic ability to recognise stress in others could also be an important component in the evolution of social cognition such as empathy. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-09-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5594025/ /pubmed/28894109 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10754-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Whitehouse, Jamie
Micheletta, Jérôme
Waller, Bridget M.
Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title_full Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title_fullStr Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title_full_unstemmed Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title_short Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
title_sort stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5594025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28894109
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10754-8
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