Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Nov:154:105422.
doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105422. Epub 2023 Oct 6.

The importance of social behavior in nonhuman primate studies of aging: A mini-review

Emily S Rothwell  1 , Sarah B Carp  2 , Eliza Bliss-Moreau  3
Affiliations
Review

The importance of social behavior in nonhuman primate studies of aging: A mini-review

Emily S Rothwell et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Social behavior plays an important role in supporting both psychological and physical health across the lifespan. People's social lives change as they age, and the nature of these changes differ based on whether people are on healthy aging trajectories or are experiencing neurodegenerative diseases that cause dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Nonhuman primate models of aging have provided a base of knowledge comparing aging trajectories in health and disease, but these studies rarely emphasize social behavior changes as a consequence of the aging process. What data exist hold particular value, as negative effects of disease and aging on social behavior are likely to have disproportionate impacts on quality of life. In this mini review, we examine the literature on nonhuman primate models of aging with a focus on social behavior, in the context of both health and disease. We propose that adopting a greater focus on social behavior outcomes in nonhuman primates will improve our understanding of the intersection of health, aging and sociality in humans.

Keywords: Affect; Affective processing; Aging; Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Emotion; Neurodegeneration; Nonhuman primate; Parkinson’s disease; Social behavior; Social relationships; Social selectivity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Summary of changes in cognition, social life, and affect in healthy aging or neurodegenerative diseases. Prominent and/or unique symptoms are highlighted for each neurodegenerative disease. (AD = Alzheimer’s disease; bvFTD = Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; PDD = Parkinson’s disease with dementia).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Almeling L, Hammerschmidt K, Sennhenn-Reulen H, Freund AM, & Fischer J (2016). Motivational Shifts in Aging Monkeys and the Origins of Social Selectivity. Current Biology, 26(13), 1744–1749. 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.066 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Almeling L, Sennhenn-Reulen H, Hammerschmidt K, Freund AM, & Fischer J (2017). Social interactions and activity patterns of old Barbary macaques: Further insights into the foundations of social selectivity. American Journal of Primatology, 79(11), e22711. 10.1002/ajp.22711 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Argaud S, Vérin M, Sauleau P, & Grandjean D (2018). Facial emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease: A review and new hypotheses. Movement Disorders, 33(4), 554–567. 10.1002/mds.27305 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arnsten AFT, Datta D, Leslie S, Yang S-T, Wang M, & Nairn AC (2019). Alzheimer’s-like pathology in aging rhesus macaques: Unique opportunity to study the etiology and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(52), 26230–26238. 10.1073/pnas.1903671116 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Assocation A (2021). 2021 Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures Special Report: Race, Ethnicity, and Alzheimer’s in America. Alzheimer’s & Dementia https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures

Publication types