Connections Matter: Social Relationships and Lifespan Health in a Monkey Model
Applying a new approach to rhesus macaque groups to realistically model individual, family, and group health across the lifespan in human populations. Humans live in societies full of rich and complex relationships that influence our physical and mental health and well-being. In both human and nonhuman primates, social life, and its interaction with factors such as personality, influence our health in complex ways. In order to treat and prevent illness and improve human health, we need a detailed understanding of the interplay between biological systems and social contexts that contribute to disease processes. Dr. Brenda McCowan, Core Scientist with CNPRC Brain, Mind, and Behavior Unit and Professor with the Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine (PHR), heads up a research program to uncover these complex relationships. Dr. McCowan, in collaboration with co-investigators at the CNPRC, School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Medicine and College of Arts and Sciences, is conducting a series of social network studies to understand the mechanisms by which social systems influence physical and mental health and well-being in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), a nonhuman primate species that shares a close evolutionary history and behavioral biology with humans. They outline, in a new invited perspective paper published in Frontiers: Psychology entitled “Connections matter: social networks and lifespan health in primate translational models”, the novel computational approach they are using to treat and understand health and well-being as a “complex system”. The research animals are rhesus macaques, a highly social nonhuman primate species, housed outdoors in large, half-acre field corrals in a rich social environment that mimics those found in the wild.
