Childhood obesity is associated with increased risk of behavioral/psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, poor learning, and attention deficient disorder. As the majority of women of child-bearing age are overweight or obese and consume a diet high in dietary fat, it is critical to examine the consequences of maternal overnutrition on the development of brain circuitry that regulates offspring behavior. Using a nonhuman primate model of diet-induced obesity, we found that maternal high-fat diet (HFD) consumption caused perturbations in the central serotonergic system of fetal offspring. In addition, female infants from HFD-fed mothers exhibited increased anxiety in response to threatening novel objects. These findings have important clinical implications as they demonstrate that exposure to maternal HFD consumption during gestation, independent of obesity, increases the risk of developing behavioral disorders such as anxiety.

Stereotypic behavior is a pervasive problem for captive monkeys and other animals. Once this behavior pattern has started, it can be difficult to alleviate. We tested whether or not using positive reinforcement training (PRT) can reduce this undesired behavior. Subjects for this study were 11 adult, female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with a history of locomotor stereotypy (e.g., pacing, bouncing, and somersaulting). We assessed baseline levels of stereotypic behavior and then utilized PRT to train six animals to touch a target and accept venipuncture. The other five monkeys served as controls. We assessed stereotypic behavior 1 week a month for 4 months, on days in which the monkey was not trained. Trained animals showed a significant reduction in stereotypic behavior after 1 month of training, compared to control monkeys (Mann Whitney U=28.00, P=0.02). These group differences did not persist after the first month (Month 2: Mann Whitney U=19.50, P=0.40, Month 3: Mann Whitney U=17.0, P=0.71, Month 4: Mann Whitney U=17.00, P=0.72). Still, the majority of the trained monkeys (n=4) engaged in less stereotypic behavior at the end of the study compared to baseline. Thus, training may be an effective way to reduce stereotypic behavior, at least for some individuals.

Full body repetitive behaviors, known as motor stereotypic behaviors (MSBs), are one of the most commonly seen abnormal behaviors in captive non-human primates, and are frequently used as a behavioral measure of well-being. The main goal of this paper was to examine the role of environmental factors (i.e., foraging enrichment and socialization) and intrinsic factors (i.e., temperament and origin) in the development of MSB in rhesus macaques living in cages. MSB was assessed during short annual observations in which a trained observer recorded a monkey’s behavior for 5 min, followed by a 3-min novel object test. Data were collected over 11 years, totaling 9805 observations. We compared MSB for animals with and without foraging enrichment, and across three socialization conditions: full contact pairing, protected contact socialization (partners physically separated by widely spaced bars), and single housing. In addition, we evaluated whether individual differences in response to a novel object and ancestral origin (i.e., China vs. India), predicted MSB expression during the annual observations. Data were analyzed using generalized mixed effects modeling, with the best fitting models chosen using Akaike Information Criterion. Subjects were at lowest risk for MSB when a foraging device was present (p < 0.05), and when in full contact social housing (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in MSB between subjects that were single housed and subjects housed in protected contact pairs. In addition, subjects that never touched the novel object were significantly less likely to exhibit MSB than those that touched the object immediately (p < 0.001) or within 3 min (p < 0.001). Finally, monkeys with some degree of Chinese ancestry were significantly more likely to display MSB than Indian-origin monkeys (p < 0.05). These results add to the growing body of literature on factors that can contribute to the development of MSB.

Macaques have served as effective models of human disease, including pathological processes associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome. This study approached several questions: (1) does a western-style diet (WSD) contribute to sedentary behavior or is sedentary behavior a consequence of obesity and (2) does estradiol (E) hormone therapy offset WSD or ameliorate sedentary behavior? We further questioned whether the timing of E administration (immediately following hysterectomy, ImE; or after a 2-year delay, DE) would impact behavior. Focal observations were taken on the animals in social housing over a period of 2.5 years before and after initiation of the WSD and hysterectomy. In addition, anxiety was assessed through the Human Intruder and Novel Object Tests. All animals gained weight, but ImE delayed the time to maximum weight achieved at 18 months. Over the course of the study, ImE-treated monkeys spent more time “alone” and less time in “close social” contact than placebo-controls. The DE-treated monkeys were not different from placebo-controls in these 2 outcomes. The placebo-control group exhibited more “self-groom” behavior, an indicator of anxiety, than did the ImE-treated group, and DE-treated animals approached levels observed in the ImE-treated animals. All animals exhibited an increase in “consume” behavior over time with no statistical difference between the groups. By the end of the protocol, the placebo-control group exhibited less activity compared to ImE + DE-treated animals combined. Animals also showed increased anxiety after starting on the WSD in the Human Intruder Test and the Novel Object Test. In summary, the data indicated that WSD per se promoted increased consummatory behavior, sedentary behavior, and anxiety-type behaviors, whereas ImE promoted activity. Thus, WSD may precipitate the behaviors observed in humans who then become obese, sedentary, anxious, and socially isolated. ImE replacement ameliorates some of these behaviors, but not all.