Monkey see, monkey do: observing macaques to better understand movement synchronization

Summary

Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences found that social motor entrainment, which is the way animals synchronize their movements with those around them, occurs spontaneously in macaque monkeys. Such attunement has been with higher social status indicating that movements are more likely to be attuned.  

Although social motor entrainment has been suggested to reinforce social cohesion, the neural underpinnings of this mechanism are not well understood, which the researchers aimed to address.  

The framework created and tested in this study could facilitate research about the neurological and evolutionary origins of social behavior in non-human primates. This achievement, together with the verification of the presence of motor entrainment during real-time social exchanges, sets the stage for future research on motor synchrony as a social phenomenon.  

【Information on the outcome】

https://www.nips.ac.jp/eng/release/2023/05/post_506.html(NIPS）
https://www.amed.go.jp/news/seika/2023_seika_index.html（AMED）

 

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