Monkey See, Monkey Do: Contagious Itch in Nonhuman Primates.
Summary of "Monkey See, Monkey Do: Contagious Itch in Nonhuman Primates."
"Contagious itch" has been anecdotally reported and recently confirmed in a controlled setting in humans. Here, we investigated in adult rhesus macaques whether 'contagious itch' occurs spontaneously in monkeys. In a first experiment, the latency to scratch following cage-mate scratching was observed in pair-housed adult rhesus macaques. Scratching increased within the first 60 s and subsequently declined. In a second experiment, scratching behavior was recorded for individually caged adult rhesus macaques which where shown videos of monkeys scratching, but also neutral stimuli. A greater frequency of scratching was observed when monkeys viewed a video sequence of another monkey scratching as well as during the neutral stimulus immediately following the monkey scratching segment. In conclusion, viewing other monkeys scratching significantly increased scratching behavior in adult rhesus macaques.
Affiliation
Department of Dermatology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, USA.
Journal Details
This article was published in the following journal.
Name: Acta dermato-venereologica
ISSN: 1651-2057
Pages:
Links
- PubMed Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22735614
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2340/00015555-1406
Medical and Biotech [MESH] Definitions
Colobinae
A subfamily of the Old World monkeys, CERCOPITHECIDAE, that inhabits the forests of Africa and Asia. The genera COLOBUS (Procolobus; colobus), Nasalis (proboscis monkey), Presbytis (Semnopithecus; leaf monkey), Pygathrix (Rhinopithecus; snub-nosed monkey), and Simias (pig-tailed langur) all belong to this subfamily.
Sarcoma Virus, Woolly Monkey
A species of GAMMARETROVIRUS producing tumors in primates. Originally isolated from a fibrosarcoma in a woolly monkey, WMSV is a replication-defective v-onc virus which carries the sis oncogene. In order to propagate, WMSV requires a replication-competent helper virus.
Erythrocebus
a genus of Old World monkeys of the family CERCOPITHECINAE that inhabit the forests and savannas of Africa. It contains only one species, ERYTHROCEBUS PATAS, also known as the patas monkey or red monkey.
Erythrocebus Patas
A species of the genus ERYTHROCEBUS, subfamily CERCOPITHECINAE, family CERCOPITHECIDAE. It inhabits the flat open arid country of Africa. It is also known as the patas monkey or the red monkey.
Retroviruses, Simian
Classes of retroviruses for which monkeys or apes are hosts. Those isolated from the West African green monkey and the Asian rhesus macaque monkey are of particular interest because of their similarities to viruses causing cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans.
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