Apes get emotional over games of chance

Chimpanzees, bonobos exhibit emotional responses to outcomes of decision-making

2013-05-30

(Press-News.org) VIDEO: This video shows bonobo temporal choice. The bonobo chooses the larger, delayed reward (three pieces of food) over the smaller, immediate reward (one piece of food). He scratches after his...
Click here for more information.

Like some humans, chimpanzees and bonobos exhibit emotional responses to outcomes of their decisions by pouting or throwing angry tantrums when a risk-taking strategy fails to pay off, according to research published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Alexandra Rosati from Yale University and Brian Hare from Duke University.

The researchers assessed the emotional responses and motivation of chimpanzees and bonobos living in African sanctuaries. Rosati explains, "Psychologists and economists have found that emotions play a critical role in shaping how humans make complex decisions, such as decisions about saving or investing money. But it was not known if these processes are shared with other animals when they make decisions about their important resources--such as food."

The apes in this study faced two different types of problems: one where they made choices about whether to wait to obtain larger rewards, and one where they made choices about whether to take a chance to obtain a high-quality treat, but risk obtaining a non-preferred food item if their gamble did not pay off. The scientists found that both species displayed emotional responses to the outcome of their choice, but chimpanzees were more patient and likely to take risks than bonobos. When their choice yielded the less preferred outcome, both species displayed negative emotional responses including vocalizations similar to pouts and moans, scratching, and banging--a type of tantrum thought to reflect anger in apes. In the risky choice task, the apes even tried to switch their choice after the fact when they realized they had made a losing gamble, but never did so when their risk-taking paid off. Some of the emotional and motivational responses displayed by the apes were species-specific while others reflected individual differences in the animals.

Based on their results, the authors conclude that apes do exhibit emotional responses to decision-making, like humans. They add that further research is needed to determine whether these emotional responses to outcomes can change the apes' future choices and decisions.

INFORMATION:

Citation: Rosati AG, Hare B (2013) Chimpanzees and Bonobos Exhibit Emotional Responses to Decision Outcomes. PLOS ONE 8(5): e63058. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063058

Financial Disclosure: This work was supported in part by European Research Commission Advanced Grant Agreement 233297 and National Science Foundation grants NSFBCS-08-27552-02 and NSF-BCS-10-25172 to BH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063058

Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.

All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately available—to read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use—without cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Anorexic individuals' disturbed body image influences unconscious movements

2013-05-30

Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa perceive their bodies as being larger than they are and this disturbed body representation affects their movements, according to research published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anouk Keizer and colleagues from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Previous studies of anorexia nervosa have largely focused on patients' disturbed perception of body image. Here, researchers examined how these disturbances may extend to unconscious, action-related representations of the body by asking anorexic and healthy participants ...

Brain activity in sleep may impact emotional disturbances in children with ADHD

2013-05-30

Sleep consolidates emotional memories in healthy children but not in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to research published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Alexander Prehn-Kristensen and colleagues from University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein. The study suggests these deficits in sleep-related emotional processing may exacerbate emotional problems experienced in the daytime by children with ADHD. For the study, healthy adults, healthy children and children with ADHD were shown pictures that had emotional relevance, ...

Thermal limit for animal life redefined by first lab study of deep-sea vent worms

2013-05-30

Forty-two may or may not be the answer to everything, but it likely defines the temperature limit where animal life thrives, according to the first laboratory study of heat-loving Pompeii worms from deep-sea vents, published May 29 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Bruce Shillito and colleagues from the University Pierre and Marie Curie, France. The worms, named Alvinella pompejana, colonize black smoker chimney walls at deep-sea vents, thrive at extremes of temperature and pressure, and have thus far eluded scientists' attempts to bring them to the surface alive ...

Health reform shields young adults from emergency medical costs, study finds

2013-05-30

A new federal law allowing young adults to remain on their parents' medical insurance until age 25 has shielded them, their families and hospitals from the full financial consequences of serious medical emergencies, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Examining hospital emergency department use during the first year after the federal Affordable Care Act provision went into effect, researchers estimate that $147 million in nondiscretionary medical care was newly covered by private insurance. Without the new regulation, those costs would have been paid by young people ...

Scientists find chemical that causes 'kidney' failure in mosquitoes

2013-05-30

WOOSTER,Ohio — An Ohio State University researcher and his collaborators have discovered a chemical that causes "kidney" failure in mosquitoes, which may pave the way to the development of new insecticides to fight deadly mosquito-transmitted diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The discovery is reported in the May 29 issue of the online journal PLOS ONE. "Our team has found a chemical that interferes with the function of a class of mosquito proteins, called potassium channels, and which compromises the ability of mosquitoes to excrete urine," said Peter Piermarini, ...

Temporary blood clot filters may do more harm than good for bariatric surgery patients

2013-05-30

The temporary placement of umbrella-like, metal mesh filters in abdominal veins to stop potentially lethal blood clots from traveling to the lungs during and after weight loss surgery may actually increase the risk of death in morbidly obese patients, according to new Johns Hopkins research. The study's findings, reported in the journal JAMA Surgery, suggest that more tried-and-true measures to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE) and its deadlier cousin pulmonary embolism (PE) — such as a standard prophylactic dose of blood thinners, early ambulation, and use of leg ...

More at-risk bird species in Brazilian forest than previously thought

2013-05-30

In a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, a team of researchers led by NJIT Associate Professor Gareth Russell has applied a novel method for linking large-scale habitat fragmentation to population sustainability. "Our goal was to assess the extinction risk for bird species in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, a global 'hotspot' of bird diversity," said Russell. "Based on elevation restrictions and forest type requirements, as well as ongoing tropical deforestation, we already knew that most species have access to far less habitat than typically assumed. But ...

Gene therapy gives mice broad protection to pandemic flu strains, including 1918 flu

2013-05-30

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential influenza pandemic. Specifically, investigators in the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directed by James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the nasal passages of mice and ferrets gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu replication when exposed to lethal strains ...

Team describes molecular detail of HIV's inner coat, pointing the way to new therapies

2013-05-30

Contact: Anita Srikameswaran Phone: 412-578-9193 E-mail: SrikamAV@upmc.edu Contact: Susan Manko Phone: 412-586-9771 E-mail: MankoSM@upmc.edu END ...

Wit, grit and a supercomputer yield chemical structure of HIV capsid

2013-05-30

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Researchers report that they have determined the precise chemical structure of the HIV capsid, a protein shell that protects the virus's genetic material and is a key to its virulence. The capsid has become an attractive target for the development of new antiretroviral drugs. The report appears as the cover article in the journal Nature. Scientists have long sought to understand how the HIV capsid is constructed, and many studies have chipped away at its mystery. Researchers have used a variety of laboratory techniques – cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-EM ...

Adolescent boys who experience violence have up to 8 times the odds of perpetrating physical and sexual intimate partner violence that same day, per South African study collecting real-time data over

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspot

Apes get emotional over games of chance

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: