Abstract
Human studies with self-reported measures have suggested a link between an avoidant coping style and high anxiety. Here, using the common marmoset as a model, we characterize the latent factors underlying behavioral responses of these monkeys towards low and high imminence threat and investigate if a predominantly avoidant behavioral response to high imminence threat is associated with greater anxiety-like behavior in a context of low imminence threat. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the human intruder test of low imminence threat revealed a single factor in which a combination of active vigilance and avoidance responses underpinned anxiety-like behavior. In contrast, two negatively-associated factors were revealed in the model snake test reflecting active and avoidant coping to high imminence threat. Subsequent analysis showed that animals with a predominantly avoidant coping style on the model snake test displayed higher anxiety-like behavior on the human intruder test, findings consistent with those described in humans. Together they illustrate the richness of the behavioral repertoire displayed by marmosets in low and high imminence threatening contexts and the additional insight that factor analysis can provide by identifying the latent factors underlying these complex behavioral datasets. They also highlight the translational value of this approach when studying the neural circuits underlying complex anxiety-like states in this primate model.
Highlights
Anxiety and fear are key components of human emotion and have been described in the NIMH’s research domain criteria as adaptive responses to potential threat and acute threat respectively
Initial runs of the Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) included: time spent at the front, time spent at the back, average height, locomotion, head and body bobs, egg calls, tsik call, tsik-egg calls, tse calls, and tse-egg calls
The variable with the lowest measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) that was below the standard of 0.5 defined by Field (2013), tse calls (MSA = 0.42) was removed from the EFA
Summary
Anxiety and fear are key components of human emotion and have been described in the NIMH’s research domain criteria as adaptive responses to potential threat and acute threat respectively. Anxiety is hypothesized to drive pre-encounter defensive behaviors when imminence is considered to be low and there is a high level of uncertainty or ambiguity, e.g., increased vigilance for risk assessment (Blanchard et al, 2011). Fear is hypothesized to drive post-encounter defense behaviors when imminence is considered to be high, e.g., freezing, attack. Distortion of threat imminence and dysregulated defensive behaviors may form the core symptomatology of anxiety disorders. Individuals with high trait anxiety, a natural disposition to attend to, experience and report negative emotions across many situations, have increased risk of developing anxiety disorders and depression (Weger and Sandi, 2018), and display greater responsivity to threat cues (Indovina et al, 2011). Studies of self-report measures in humans have suggested that the tendency to adopt an avoidant coping strategy is linked to anxiety and depressive symptoms during adolescence (Chan, 1995; Herman-Stabl et al, 1995; Seiffge-Krenke and Klessinger, 2000; Gomez and McLaren, 2006), and increased post-trauma PTSD symptom severity (Pineles et al, 2011)
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