Gender differences in reactivity of adult squirrel monkeys to short-term environmental challenges.
Evidence is presented to show that individual adult squirrel monkeys show gender-specific reactivity profiles to threatening stimuli under laboratory conditions, and that a putative anxiogenic drug, benactyzine hydrochloride, enhances the vocal response to threatening stimuli, but otherwise preserves the relative importance of the stimuli to both males and females. These data support the conclusion that screening of putative anxiolytic drugs in a primate model can be accomplished using efficient, ethologically based testing procedures in the laboratory.
Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD 20837.
L J
LJ
Crepeau
J D
JD
Newman
D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000523:psychology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001535:Benactyzine / Q000494:pharmacology; D005010:Ethology / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012453:Saimiri; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000187:drug effects
D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D001535:Benactyzine