Similarities and differences in the <i>functional architecture</i> of mother- infant communication in rhesus macaque and British mother-infant dyads

Sclafani, V, De Pascalis, L ORCID: 0000-0002-9150-3468, Bozicevic, L ORCID: 0000-0001-8629-1723, Sepe, A, Ferrari, PF and Murray, L (2023) Similarities and differences in the <i>functional architecture</i> of mother- infant communication in rhesus macaque and British mother-infant dyads. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 13 (1). 13164-.

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Abstract

Similarly to humans, rhesus macaques engage in mother-infant face-to-face interactions. However, no previous studies have described the naturally occurring structure and development of mother-infant interactions in this population and used a comparative-developmental perspective to directly compare them to the ones reported in humans. Here, we investigate the development of infant communication, and maternal responsiveness in the two groups. We video-recorded mother-infant interactions in both groups in naturalistic settings and analysed them with the same micro-analytic coding scheme. Results show that infant social expressiveness and maternal responsiveness are similarly structured in humans and macaques. Both human and macaque mothers use specific mirroring responses to specific infant social behaviours (modified mirroring to communicative signals, enriched mirroring to affiliative gestures). However, important differences were identified in the development of infant social expressiveness, and in forms of maternal responsiveness, with vocal responses and marking behaviours being predominantly human. Results indicate a common functional architecture of mother-infant communication in humans and monkeys, and contribute to theories concerning the evolution of specific traits of human behaviour.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Animals, Macaca mulatta, Humans, Gestures, Social Behavior, Mother-Child Relations, Mothers, Infant, Female
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	10 Aug 2023 08:16
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2023 15:24
DOI:	10.1038/s41598-023-39623-3
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172169