Tolerant macaque species are less impulsive and reactive.

Inhibitory control, the inhibition of impulsive behaviours, is believed to be key in navigating a complex social environment. Species characterised by higher social tolerance, living in more complex groups, with more diverse relationships, face higher uncertainty regarding the outcome of social interactions and, therefore, would benefit from employing more inhibitory strategies. To date, little is known about the selective forces that favour the evolution of inhibitory control. In this study, we compared inhibitory control skills in three closely related macaque species which differ in their social tolerance style. We tested 66 macaques from two institutions (Macaca mulatta, low tolerance; M. fascicularis, medium tolerance; and M. tonkeana, high tolerance) using a battery of validated inhibitory control touchscreen tasks. Higher social tolerance was associated with enhanced inhibitory control performances. More tolerant species were less impulsive and less distracted by pictures of unknown conspecifics. Interestingly, we did not find evidence that social tolerance degree was associated with performance in reversal learning. Overall, our results support the hypothesis that evolution has promoted the development of socio-cognitive skills to cope with the demands related to the complexity of the social environment.

Testing for personality consistency across naturally occurring behavioral contexts in sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Personality is both a reflection of the bio-behavioral profile of individuals and a summary of how they typically interact with their physical and social world. Personality is usually defined as having distinct behavioral characteristics, which are assumed to be consistent over time and across contexts. Like other mammals, primates have individual differences in personality. Although temporal consistency is sometimes measured in primates, and contextual consistency is sometimes measured across experimental contexts, it is rare to measure both in the same individuals and outside of experimental settings. Here, we aim to measure both temporal and contextual consistency in chimpanzees, assessing their personality with behavioral observations from naturally occurring contexts (i.e., real-life settings). We measured personality-based behaviors in 22 sanctuary chimpanzees, in the contexts of feeding, affiliation, resting, and solitude, across two time periods, spanning 4 years. Of the 22 behaviors recorded, about 64% were consistent across two to four contexts and 50% were consistent over time. Ten behaviors loaded significantly onto three trait components: explorativeness, boldness-sociability, and anxiety-sociability, as revealed by factor analysis. Like others, we documented individual differences in the personality of chimpanzees based on reliably measured observations in real-life contexts. Furthermore, we demonstrated relatively strong, but not absolute, temporal, and contextual consistency in personality-based behaviors. We also found another aspect of individual differences in personality, specifically, the extent to which individual chimpanzees show consistency. Some individuals showed contextual and temporal consistency, whereas others show significant variation across behaviors, contexts, and/or time. We speculate that the relative degree of consistency in personality may vary within chimpanzees. It may be that different primate species vary in the extent to which individuals show consistency of personality traits. Our behavioral-based assessment can be used with wild populations, increasing the validity of personality studies, facilitating comparative studies and potentially being applicable to conservation efforts.

NetFACS: Using network science to understand facial communication systems.

Understanding facial signals in humans and other species is crucial for understanding the evolution, complexity, and function of the face as a communication tool. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) enables researchers to measure facial movements accurately, but we currently lack tools to reliably analyse data and efficiently communicate results. Network analysis can provide a way to use the information encoded in FACS datasets: by treating individual AUs (the smallest units of facial movements) as nodes in a network and their co-occurrence as connections, we can analyse and visualise differences in the use of combinations of AUs in different conditions. Here, we present 'NetFACS', a statistical package that uses occurrence probabilities and resampling methods to answer questions about the use of AUs, AU combinations, and the facial communication system as a whole in humans and non-human animals. Using highly stereotyped facial signals as an example, we illustrate some of the current functionalities of NetFACS. We show that very few AUs are specific to certain stereotypical contexts; that AUs are not used independently from each other; that graph-level properties of stereotypical signals differ; and that clusters of AUs allow us to reconstruct facial signals, even when blind to the underlying conditions. The flexibility and widespread use of network analysis allows us to move away from studying facial signals as stereotyped expressions, and towards a dynamic and differentiated approach to facial communication.

Tolerant and intolerant macaques show different levels of structural complexity in their vocal communication.

We tested the social complexity hypothesis which posits that animals living in complex social environments should use complex communication systems. We focused on two components of vocal complexity: diversity (number of categories of calls) and flexibility (degree of gradation between categories of calls). We compared the acoustic structure of vocal signals in groups of macaques belonging to four species with varying levels of uncertainty (i.e. complexity) in social tolerance (the higher the degree of tolerance, the higher the degree of uncertainty): two intolerant species, Japanese and rhesus macaques, and two tolerant species, Tonkean and crested macaques. We recorded the vocalizations emitted by adult females in affiliative, agonistic and neutral contexts. We analysed several acoustic variables: call duration, entropy, time and frequency energy quantiles. The results showed that tolerant macaques displayed higher levels of vocal diversity and flexibility than intolerant macaques in situations with a greater number of options and consequences, i.e. in agonistic and affiliative contexts. We found no significant differences between tolerant and intolerant macaques in the neutral context where individuals are not directly involved in social interaction. This shows that species experiencing more uncertain social interactions displayed greater vocal diversity and flexibility, which supports the social complexity hypothesis.

Morphological variants of silent bared-teeth displays have different social interaction outcomes in crested macaques (Macaca nigra).

OBJECTIVES: While it has been demonstrated that even subtle variation in human facial expressions can lead to significant changes in the meaning and function of expressions, relatively few studies have examined primate facial expressions using similarly objective and rigorous analysis. Construction of primate facial expression repertoires may, therefore, be oversimplified, with expressions often arbitrarily pooled and/or split into subjective pigeonholes. Our objective is to assess whether subtle variation in primate facial expressions is linked to variation in function, and hence to inform future attempts to quantify complexity of facial communication. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used Macaque Facial Action Coding System, an anatomically based and hence more objective tool, to quantify "silent bared-teeth" (SBT) expressions produced by wild crested macaques engaging in spontaneous behavior, and utilized discriminant analysis and bootstrapping analysis to look for morphological differences between SBT produced in four different contexts, defined by the outcome of interactions: Affiliation, Copulation, Play, and Submission. RESULTS: We found that SBT produced in these contexts could be distinguished at significantly above-chance rates, indicating that the expressions produced in these four contexts differ morphologically. We identified the specific facial movements that were typically used in each context, and found that the variability and intensity of facial movements also varied between contexts. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that nonhuman primate facial expressions share the human characteristic of exhibiting meaningful subtle differences. Complexity of facial communication may not be accurately represented simply by building repertoires of distinct expressions, so further work should attempt to take this subtle variability into account.

Comparing physical and social cognitive skills in macaque species with different degrees of social tolerance.

Contemporary evolutionary theories propose that living in groups drives the selection of enhanced cognitive skills to face competition and facilitate cooperation between individuals. Being able to coordinate both in space and time with others and make strategic decisions are essential skills for cooperating within groups. Social tolerance and an egalitarian social structure have been proposed as one specific driver of cooperation. Therefore, social tolerance is predicted to be associated with enhanced cognitive skills that underpin communication and coordination. Social tolerance should also be associated with enhanced inhibition, which is crucial for suppressing automatic responses and permitting delayed gratification in cooperative contexts. We tested the performance of four closely related non-human primate species (genus Macaca) characterized by different degrees of social tolerance on a large battery of cognitive tasks covering physical and social cognition, and on an inhibitory control task. All species performed at a comparable level on the physical cognition tasks but the more tolerant species outperformed the less tolerant species at a social cognition task relevant to cooperation and in the inhibitory control task. These findings support the hypothesis that social tolerance is associated with the evolution of sophisticated cognitive skills relevant for cooperative social living.

Social variables exert selective pressures in the evolution and form of primate mimetic musculature.

Mammals use their faces in social interactions more so than any other vertebrates. Primates are an extreme among most mammals in their complex, direct, lifelong social interactions and their frequent use of facial displays is a means of proximate visual communication with conspecifics. The available repertoire of facial displays is primarily controlled by mimetic musculature, the muscles that move the face. The form of these muscles is, in turn, limited by and influenced by phylogenetic inertia but here we use examples, both morphological and physiological, to illustrate the influence that social variables may exert on the evolution and form of mimetic musculature among primates. Ecomorphology is concerned with the adaptive responses of morphology to various ecological variables such as diet, foliage density, predation pressures, and time of day activity. We present evidence that social variables also exert selective pressures on morphology, specifically using mimetic muscles among primates as an example. Social variables include group size, dominance 'style', and mating systems. We present two case studies to illustrate the potential influence of social behavior on adaptive morphology of mimetic musculature in primates: (1) gross morphology of the mimetic muscles around the external ear in closely related species of macaque (Macaca mulatta and Macaca nigra) characterized by varying dominance styles and (2) comparative physiology of the orbicularis oris muscle among select ape species. This muscle is used in both facial displays/expressions and in vocalizations/human speech. We present qualitative observations of myosin fiber-type distribution in this muscle of siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus), chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), and human to demonstrate the potential influence of visual and auditory communication on muscle physiology. In sum, ecomorphologists should be aware of social selective pressures as well as ecological ones, and that observed morphology might reflect a compromise between the demands of the physical and the social environments.

Macaques can predict social outcomes from facial expressions.

There is widespread acceptance that facial expressions are useful in social interactions, but empirical demonstration of their adaptive function has remained elusive. Here, we investigated whether macaques can use the facial expressions of others to predict the future outcomes of social interaction. Crested macaques (Macaca nigra) were shown an approach between two unknown individuals on a touchscreen and were required to choose between one of two potential social outcomes. The facial expressions of the actors were manipulated in the last frame of the video. One subject reached the experimental stage and accurately predicted different social outcomes depending on which facial expressions the actors displayed. The bared-teeth display (homologue of the human smile) was most strongly associated with predicted friendly outcomes. Contrary to our predictions, screams and threat faces were not associated more with conflict outcomes. Overall, therefore, the presence of any facial expression (compared to neutral) caused the subject to choose friendly outcomes more than negative outcomes. Facial expression in general, therefore, indicated a reduced likelihood of social conflict. The findings dispute traditional theories that view expressions only as indicators of present emotion and instead suggest that expressions form part of complex social interactions where individuals think beyond the present.

Facial expression recognition in crested macaques (Macaca nigra).

Facial expressions are a main communication channel used by many different species of primate. Despite this, we know relatively little about how primates discriminate between different facial expressions, and most of what we do know comes from a restricted number of well-studied species. In this study, three crested macaques (Macaca nigra) took part in matching-to-sample tasks where they had to discriminate different facial expressions. In a first experiment, the macaques had to match a photograph of a facial expression to another exemplar of the same expression produced by a different individual, against examples of one of three other types of expressions and neutral faces. In a second experiment, they had to match a dynamic video recording of a facial expression to a still photograph of another exemplar of the same facial expression produced by another individual, also against one of four other expressions. The macaques performed above chance in both tasks, identifying expressions as belonging to the same category regardless of individual identity. Using matrix correlations and multidimensional scaling, we analysed the pattern of errors to see whether overall similarity between facial expressions and/or specific morphological features caused the macaques to confuse facial expressions. Overall similarity, measured with the macaque facial action coding system (maqFACS), did not correlate with performances. Instead, functional similarities between facial expressions could be responsible for the observed pattern of error. These results expand previous findings to a novel primate species and highlight the potential of using video stimuli to investigate the perception and categorisation of visual signals in primates.

Relationship between dominance hierarchy steepness and rank-relatedness of benefits in primates.

In animal social groups, the extent to which individuals consistently win agonistic interactions and their ability to monopolize resources represent 2 core aspects of their competitive regime. However, whether these two aspects are closely correlated within groups has rarely been studied. Here, we tested the hypothesis that hierarchy steepness, which is generally used to represent power differentials between group members, predicts the variation in the distribution of fitness-related benefits (i.e. fecundity, infant survival, mating success, and feeding success) in relation to individual dominance ranks. We tested this hypothesis in primate groups using comparative phylogenetic meta-analytical techniques. Specifically, we reviewed published and unpublished studies to extract data on individual dominance ranks, their access to fitness-related benefits, and hierarchy steepness. We collected and included in our analysis a total of 153 data points, representing 27 species (including 2 chimpanzee sub-species). From these, we used 4 common methods to measure individual dominance ranks and hierarchy steepness, i.e. D ij -based normalized David's scores, randomized Elo-ratings, and David's scores and Elo-ratings estimated in Bayesian frameworks. We found that hierarchy steepness had no effect on the strength of the relationship between dominance rank and access to fitness-related benefits. Our results suggest that hierarchy steepness does not reflect between-group variation in the extent to which individual dominance affects the acquisition of fitness-related benefits in primates. Although the ability to win agonistic encounters is essential, we speculate that other behavioral strategies adopted by individuals may play crucial roles in resource acquisition in animal competitive regimes.

Social tolerance in wild female crested macaques (Macaca nigra) in Tangkoko-Batuangus Nature Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In primates, females typically drive the evolution of the social system and present a wide diversity of social structures. To understand this diversity, it is necessary to document the consistency and/or flexibility of female social structures across and within species, contexts, and environments. Macaques (Macaca sp.) are an ideal taxon for such comparative study, showing both consistency and variation in their social relations. Their social styles, constituting robust sets of social traits, can be classified in four grades, from despotic to tolerant. However, tolerant species are still understudied, especially in the wild. To foster our understanding of tolerant societies and to assess the validity of the concept of social style, we studied female crested macaques, Macaca nigra, under entirely natural conditions. We assessed their degree of social tolerance by analyzing the frequency, intensity, and distribution of agonistic and affiliative behaviors, their dominance gradient, their bared-teeth display, and their level of conciliatory tendency. We also analyzed previously undocumented behavioral patterns in grade 4 macaques: reaction upon approach and distribution of affiliative behavior across partners. We compared the observed patterns to data from other populations of grade 4 macaques and from species of other grades. Overall, female crested macaques expressed a tolerant social style, with low intensity, frequently bidirectional, and reconciled conflicts. Dominance asymmetry was moderate, associated with an affiliative bared-teeth display. Females greatly tolerated one another in close proximity. The observed patterns matched the profile of other tolerant macaques and were outside the range of patterns of more despotic species. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of females' social behavior in a tolerant macaque species under natural conditions and as such, contributes to a better understanding of macaque societies. It also highlights the relevance of the social style concept in the assessment of the degree of tolerance/despotism in social systems.

Multicomponent and multimodal lipsmacking in crested macaques (Macaca nigra).

Primates' communicative signals are often dynamic and composed of multiple components, sometimes belonging to different sensory modalities. Such multicomponent signals are of crucial importance in the study of communication: the addition of extra features to a signal has the potential to modulate or change the meaning and message of the specific signal. Traditionally, however, components of compound signals are studied in isolation from each other, or communicative displays are studied as static and invariant wholes. Both approaches may not allow us to assess the full function of the signals. In crested macaques (Macaca nigra), the lipsmack (a display mainly used in affiliative interactions) can be produced alone or combined with other visual and acoustic communicative features. We investigated whether the composition of the lipsmack influenced the outcome of social interaction while controlling for relationship quality. Our results show that lipsmacks composed of both visual and vocal components (i.e. multimodal signals) increased the probability of affiliative contact, and therefore have enhanced signal value. The total number of visual components involved in the display had no effect but some visual components seemed more influential than others. By analyzing lipsmacking behavior as a composite, dynamic display, we were able to reveal a level of complexity that is not apparent when looking at each component separately. The results highlight the importance of a more integrative, multimodal approach to the study of primate communication.

Personality Traits Predict Social Network Size in Older Adults.

Humans live in unusually large groups, where relationships are thought to be maintained through complex socio-communicative abilities. The size and quality of social networks are associated with health and well-being outcomes throughout life. However, how some individuals manage to form larger social networks is not well understood. If socio-communicative traits evolved to form and maintain relationships, personality traits should be associated with variation in network size. Here, using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we investigate the impact of extraversion, agreeableness, and verbal communication on network size (N = 5,202) and network size change over time (N = 1,511) in later life for kin and friend networks. Higher levels of extraversion and agreeableness were associated with greater social network sizes but did not predict network size change over 14 years. The findings are discussed considering the evolutionary hypothesis that communicative and affiliative traits may have evolved to support the maintenance of social networks.

Ten Years of Positive Impact of a Conservation Education Program on Children's Knowledge and Behaviour Toward Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra) in the Greater Tangkoko Area, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

In areas where primates are threatened, environmental education interventions are a key way to increase the local population's knowledge of their environment and encourage positive attitudes and habits to preserve the environment and wildlife on a local and global scale. This study assesses the impact of Tangkoko Conservation Education (TCE), the Macaca Nigra Project's conservation education programme, running since 2011 in North Sulawesi for school children, teachers, and the local population. TCE's goal is to help people increase their knowledge of their environment and develop more positive habits and behaviours towards their local environment, especially the Critically Endangered and endemic crested macaques (Macaca nigra). We measured the efficacy of TCE's programme for pupils using questionnaires provided one month before and one month after a year-long conservation education programme at school. Pupils' knowledge and behaviour scores increased significantly after their participation in the programme. Their habits score also increased but this increase was not statistically significant. Girls scored significantly higher than boys in terms of positive behaviour towards wildlife. Children participating in the programme more than once seemed to obtain higher scores in their second participation, although the sample size was too small for formal analysis. Despite some limitations, this study demonstrates the positive impact of our programme on young people living in an area where primates are threatened. We hope that this research will inspire similar programmes in Sulawesi and elsewhere by providing methods and activities to help prevent primate extinction. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10764-023-00356-9.

Higher social tolerance is associated with more complex facial behavior in macaques.

The social complexity hypothesis for communicative complexity posits that animal societies with more complex social systems require more complex communication systems. We tested the social complexity hypothesis on three macaque species that vary in their degree of social tolerance and complexity. We coded facial behavior in >3000 social interactions across three social contexts (aggressive, submissive, affiliative) in 389 animals, using the Facial Action Coding System for macaques (MaqFACS). We quantified communicative complexity using three measures of uncertainty: entropy, specificity, and prediction error. We found that the relative entropy of facial behavior was higher for the more tolerant crested macaques as compared to the less tolerant Barbary and rhesus macaques across all social contexts, indicating that crested macaques more frequently use a higher diversity of facial behavior. The context specificity of facial behavior was higher in rhesus as compared to Barbary and crested macaques, demonstrating that Barbary and crested macaques used facial behavior more flexibly across different social contexts. Finally, a random forest classifier predicted social context from facial behavior with highest accuracy for rhesus and lowest for crested, indicating there is higher uncertainty and complexity in the facial behavior of crested macaques. Overall, our results support the social complexity hypothesis.

Social bonds affect anti-predator behaviour in a tolerant species of macaque, Macaca nigra.

Enduring positive social bonds between individuals are crucial for humans' health and well being. Similar bonds can be found in a wide range of taxa, revealing the evolutionary origins of humans' social bonds. Evidence suggests that these strong social bonds can function to buffer the negative effects of living in groups, but it is not known whether they also function to minimize predation risk. Here, we show that crested macaques (Macaca nigra) react more strongly to playbacks of recruitment alarm calls (i.e. calls signalling the presence of a predator and eliciting cooperative mobbing behaviour) if they were produced by an individual with whom they share a strong social bond. Dominance relationships between caller and listener had no effect on the reaction of the listener. Thus, strong social bonds may improve the coordination and efficiency of cooperative defence against predators, and therefore increase chances of survival. This result broadens our understanding of the evolution and function of social bonds by highlighting their importance in the anti-predator context.

Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates.

Inhibitory control, the ability to override an inappropriate prepotent response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. However, the various paradigms designed to measure inhibitory control often suffer from a lack of systematic validation and have yielded mixed results. Thus the nature of this ability remains unclear, is it a general construct or a family of distinct sub-components? Therefore, the aim of this study was first to demonstrate the content validity and the temporal repeatability of a battery of inhibitory control tasks. Then we wanted to assess the contextual consistency of performances between these tasks to better understand the structure of inhibitory control. We tested 21 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, 12 males, nine females) in a battery of touchscreen tasks assessing three main components of inhibitory control: inhibition of a distraction (using a Distraction task), inhibition of an impulsive action (using a Go/No-go task) and inhibition of a cognitive set (using a Reversal learning task). All tasks were reliable and effective at measuring the inhibition of a prepotent response. However, while there was consistency of performance between the inhibition of a distraction and the inhibition of an action, representing a response-driven basic form of inhibition, this was not found for the inhibition of a cognitive set. We argue that the inhibition of a cognitive set is a more cognitively demanding form of inhibition. This study gives a new insight in the multifaceted structure of inhibitory control and highlights the importance of a systematic validation of cognitive tasks in animal cognition.

Revisiting Darwin's comparisons between human and non-human primate facial signals.

Darwin and other pioneering scholars made comparisons between human facial signals and those of non-human primates, suggesting they share evolutionary history. We now have tools available (Facial Action Coding System: FACS) to make these comparisons anatomically based and standardised, as well as analytical methods to facilitate comparative studies. Here we review the evidence establishing a shared anatomical basis between the facial behaviour of human and non-human primate species, concluding which signals are likely related, and which are not. We then review the evidence for shared function and discuss the implications for understanding human communication. Where differences between humans and other species exist, we explore possible explanations and future directions for enquiry.

Crested macaque facial movements are more intense and stereotyped in potentially risky social interactions.

Ambiguity in communicative signals may lead to misunderstandings and thus reduce the effectiveness of communication, especially in unpredictable interactions such as between closely matched rivals or those with a weak social bond. Therefore, signals used in these circumstances should be less ambiguous, more stereotyped and more intense. To test this prediction, we measured facial movements of crested macaques (Macaca nigra) during spontaneous social interaction, using the Facial Action Coding System for macaques (MaqFACS). We used linear mixed models to assess whether facial movement intensity and variability varied according to the interaction outcome, the individuals' dominance relationship and their social bond. Movements were least intense and most variable in affiliative contexts, and more intense in interactions between individuals who were closely matched in terms of dominance rating. We found no effect of social bond strength. Our findings provide evidence for a reduction in ambiguity of facial behaviour in risky social situations but do not demonstrate any mitigating effect of social relationship quality. The results indicate that the ability to modify communicative signals may play an important role in navigating complex primate social interactions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cognition, communication and social bonds in primates'.

Heterogeneity of performances in several inhibitory control tasks: male rhesus macaques are more easily distracted than females.

Inhibitory control, the ability to override a dominant response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. In animal studies, striking individual variations are often largely ignored and their causes rarely considered. Hence, our aims were to systematically investigate individual variability in inhibitory control, to replicate the most common causes of individual variation (age, sex and rank) and to determine if these factors had a consistent effect on three main components of inhibitory control (inhibition of a distraction, inhibition of an action, inhibition of a cognitive set). We tested 21 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in a battery of validated touchscreen tasks. We first found individual variations in all inhibitory control performances. We then demonstrated that males had poorer performances to inhibit a distraction and that middle-aged individuals exhibited poorer performance in the inhibition of a cognitive set. Hence, the factors of age and sex were not consistently associated with the main components of inhibitory control, suggesting a multi-faceted structure. The rank of the subjects did not influence any inhibitory control performances. This study adopts a novel approach for animal behaviour studies and gives new insight into the individual variability of inhibitory control which is crucial to understand its evolutionary underpinnings.