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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
PubMed

Insights

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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