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Cheek Injection Model for Simultaneous Measurement of Pain and Itch-related Behaviors
Published on: September 27, 2019
Monkey see, monkey do: contagious itch in nonhuman primates
Ashley N Feneran1, Russell O'Donnell, Ashley Press
1Department of Dermatology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, USA.
Acta Dermato-Venereologica
|June 28, 2012
Summary
Contagious itch, or the urge to scratch when seeing others scratch, was observed in rhesus macaques. This study confirms contagious itch behavior in non-human primates, suggesting a shared neurological basis for this phenomenon.
Area of Science:
- Primatology
- Ethology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Contagious itch (echopraxia of scratching) is a known phenomenon in humans, recently confirmed in controlled settings.
- Anecdotal evidence suggests contagious itch may occur in non-human primates, but empirical validation is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the occurrence of spontaneous contagious itch in adult rhesus macaques.
- To determine if observing conspecifics scratch elicits scratching behavior in rhesus macaques.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Observed latency to scratch in pair-housed rhesus macaques following cage-mate scratching.
- Experiment 2: Recorded scratching behavior in individually housed rhesus macaques exposed to videos of conspecifics scratching and neutral stimuli.
Main Results:
- Scratching behavior increased significantly within 60 seconds of observing a cage-mate scratch in the first experiment.
- Rhesus macaques exhibited increased scratching frequency when viewing videos of other macaques scratching, as well as during neutral stimuli immediately following scratching segments in the second experiment.
Conclusions:
- Viewing conspecifics scratching significantly increases scratching behavior in adult rhesus macaques.
- These findings provide empirical evidence for contagious itch in rhesus macaques, supporting its occurrence in non-human primates.
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