The development of an instrument to measure global dimensions of maternal care in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Abstract

One of the strongest predictors of healthy child development is the quality of maternal care. Although many measures of observation and self-report exist in humans to assess global aspects of maternal care, such qualitative measures are lacking in nonhuman primates. In this study we developed an instrument to measure global aspects of maternal care in rhesus monkeys, with the goal of complementing the individual behavioral data collected using a well-established rhesus macaque ethogram during the first months postpartum. The 22 items of the instrument were adapted from human maternal sensitivity assessments and a maternal Q-sort instrument already published for macaques. The 22 items formed four dimensions with high levels of internal reliability that represented major constructs of maternal care: 1) Sensitivity/Responsivity, 2) Protectiveness, 3) Permissiveness, and 4) Irritability. These dimensions yielded high construct validity when correlated with mother-infant frequency and duration behavior that was collected from focal observations across the first three postnatal months. In addition, comparisons of two groups of mothers (Maltreating versus Competent mothers), showed significant differences across the dimensions suggesting that this instrument has strong concurrent validity, even after controlling for focal observation variables that have been previously shown to significantly differentiate these groups. Our findings suggest that this Instrument of Macaque Maternal Care (IMMC) has the potential to capture global aspects of the mother-infant relationship that complement individual behaviors collected through focal observations.

Maternal buffering beyond glucocorticoids: impact of early life stress on corticolimbic circuits that control infant responses to novelty

“…In addition to recording frequencies and durations of specific mother-infant behaviors in the social group, global aspects of maternal care were also assessed using observer rating scales of maternal care, the IMMC, adapted for use in rhesus monkeys by our group (McCormack et al, 2015). The global aspects of maternal care captured by this tool include maternal sensitivity/responsivity, protectiveness, permissiveness/secure-base behavior, and irritability.…”

“…The global aspects of maternal care captured by this tool include maternal sensitivity/responsivity, protectiveness, permissiveness/secure-base behavior, and irritability. Briefly, the IMMC is a 22-item global rating instrument of the quality of maternal care created by adapting measures published in the Maternal Q-sort for macaques (Kondo-Ikemura & Waters, 1995), the Human Maternal Behaviors Q-Sort (Pederson & Moran, 1995), and the Free Play and Clean-Up task for children (Gardner et al, 1999; Pears & Ayres, 2000) (see McCormack et al, 2015 for details). Items in the IMMC were selected based on applicability to rhesus monkey mother-infant behavioral interactions and their coverage of a spectrum of maternal care qualities.…”

“…We also hypothesized that weaker structural integrity of the UF in maltreated infants (suggesting weaker amygdalaprefrontal connectivity; quantified as FA using DTI) would predict higher behavioral inhibition during these novelty tasks. Based on our previous reports that maltreating mothers also show low maternal responsiveness and permissiveness (McCormack et al, 2015), we investigated whether these qualitative aspects of maternal care, in addition to abuse and rejection, are important predictors of infant behavioral reactivity.…”

Connectome-scale functional intrinsic connectivity networks in macaques

“…A total of 10 subjects with longitudinal resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) scans collected during infancy and the juvenile period were used in this study (scans available at four different ages: 3-months: 10 subjects; 6-months: 10 subjects; 12-months: 8 subjects; 18-months: 5 subjects). The subjects represent typically developing, socially-housed rhesus monkeys, studied longitudinally as part of a larger study (Howell et al, 2016; McCormack et al, 2015). They were raised with their mothers and families for the entire duration of the study in large social groups and they span all social hierarchy strata (high, medium and low ranking families).…”

UNC-Emory Infant Atlases for Macaque Brain Image Analysis: Postnatal Brain Development through 12 Months

“…A total of 40 infant rhesus monkeys ( M. mulatta ) were used for the generation of the atlases as part of a larger study where animals were scanned longitudinally during infancy and the early juvenile period (from 2 weeks through 18 months of age) to examine the role of maternal care on brain and biobehavioral development (see Hoftman and Lewis, 2011; McCormack et al, 2015; Howell et al, 2017). Subject age and gender distribution at each age is shown in Table 1.…”