Abstract
More than a decade has passed since publication of the book Our Stolen Future by Colborn and colleagues in 1996. Yet traces of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) persist, and there has been no decrease in their concentrations worldwide. We have been investigating the effect of perinatal exposure to EDCs such as dioxin, bisphenol A (BPA), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on mother–infant interactions and peer relationships of two species of macaques (mulatta and fascicularis) by analyzing their observed behaviors. We found fewer effects of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) than were expected but serious effects of BPA and PCBs. BPA prevents behavioral sex differentiation in infants, and PCBs suppress their social initiative in mother–infant and peer interactions. These studies prove that the observation paradigm for the analysis of mother and infant behaviors is a helpful and practical method to assess the subtle influence of EDCs on the brains of higher primates.
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