Maternal immune activation alters infant attentional processing in a nonhuman primate model

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Biology
• Primate Models

Background:

• Maternal infection during pregnancy is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders.
• Maternal immune activation (MIA) models show how cytokines affect offspring brain and behavior.
• Nonhuman primate (NHP) models offer greater human translational potential than rodent models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate early attentional development in male rhesus monkeys exposed to MIA.
• To assess imitation abilities and responses to novel stimuli in infant MIA-exposed monkeys.
• To explore the translational potential of NHP MIA models for understanding human gestational exposures.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a rhesus monkey model of maternal immune activation (MIA).
• Assessed imitation of social signals at 1 week old.
• Conducted visual paired comparison tasks with abstract stimuli (1 month) and social stimuli (3-4 months).

Main Results:

• MIA-exposed infants showed atypical imitation of social signals.
• MIA-exposed infants exhibited longer looking times at novel abstract and social stimuli compared to controls.
• Atypical responses to novelty were more pronounced in easier discrimination tasks.

Conclusions:

• Early attentional processes are disrupted in male NHP offspring following MIA.
• Disrupted attention, characterized by longer processing times for novel stimuli, may be an early indicator of neurodevelopmental alterations.
• The NHP MIA model provides valuable translational insights into the impact of gestational maternal infections on offspring neurodevelopment.