DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xvt
title: Abnormal repetitive behaviour and exposure to negative experiences in rhesus monkeys

description: We tested the hypothesis that, in rhesus macaques used in biomedical
 research, the performance of abnormal repetitive behaviours (ARBs; e.g.
 pacing, hair-plucking, eye-poking) reflects the cumulative burden of
 negative experiences. For 240 macaques living in two US National Primate
 Centres, we did this by cataloguing, weighing, and summing exposure to 12
 types of negative event or practice (two current, ten past), over
 animals' entire lifespans; and then assessing their aggregated impact
 on current behaviour. When all recorded forms of ARB were pooled into one
 measure, the hypothesis was strongly supported at one facility: Pooled ARB
 increased with Lifetime Negative Experience Scores in a dose-response type
 manner, and reflected the combined effects of both Current and Past
 Negative Experiences. At the other facility, Current Negative Experience
 Scores had no apparent impact on Pooled ARB; however, Past Negative
 Experience Scores were still highly predictive. This approach, inspired by
 psychological research on humans, adds to growing evidence that ARBs can
 reflect the cumulative impact of the number and severity of negative
 experiences, past and potentially present.
description: Subjects were 240 indoor-housed rhesus macaques at the California
 and Oregon National Primate Research Centers (anonymized in dataset): all
 the residents of 5 rooms per centre. They lived in metal cages, some
 singly, some in double-size cages in pairs. Behavioural data were remotely
 collected via live-streaming cameras, in scans repeated every c. 5 minutes
 for 3-4 hours daily over 4 (ONPRC) or 5 (CNPRC) consecutive days. Pacing,
 ‘rocking+’ and a third previously validated ARB sub-category,
 hair-plucking, were recorded in both facilities; present in &gt;5%
 subjects; and also performed with good internal reliability. After initial
 analysis attempts, however, pacing and rocking+ were combined as
 'motor ARB' (shared here). After results for hair-plucking and
 motor ARB emerged, all recorded ARBs were also pooled for further
 analysis: Pooled ARB is also shared here.  Data on
 negative experiences over the lifespan: we identified 12 types of
 challenge (either events or facility practices) likely to induce negative
 affect. Two pertained to current housing: an adverse cage location (low,
 near the door); and being singly-caged. Ten (extracted from facility
 records) pertained to past experiences: maternal loss in infancy; being
 born and raised indoors; living indoors; spending time singly-caged; being
 relocated; being aggressed by a cagemate; losing a cagemate; involvement
 in research projects; health events (including research procedures); and
 spending time in hospital. To capture variation in aversiveness, every
 monkey was scored (blind to their behavioural data) between 0 and 1 for
 each challenge. For robustness, for 10 of the items we used two methods
 that varied in how differential experiences were weighted: a
 'min-max' method divided a subject's scores by the
 dataset's greatest value for that challenge; and a
 'quantiles' method scored each subjects categorically by ranks
 (typically quartiles) for each challenge. The two items pertaining to
 infancy (age when separated from mother; type of indoor/outdoor reading
 facility) were always scored 0-1 based on categories. All 22 scores are
 shared here. (Raw values are not shared for reasons of confidentiality).
 These scores were totalled to create two <em>Lifetime Negative
 Experience Scores</em> (maximum 12). <em>Current Negative
 Experience</em> and <em>Past Negative Experience
 Scores</em> (respective maxima 2, 10) were also created for analysis
 (again two for each, one based on quantiles method and one based on the
 'min-max' method). These six <em>Negative Experience
 Scores</em> are also shared here.
description: # Abnormal repetitive behaviour and exposure to negative experiences in
 rhesus monkeys Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xvt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j3tx95xvt) ##
 Description of the data and file structure Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour
 (ARB) data: data were collected via scans. Pacing, ‘rocking+’ and
 hair-plucking were the main ARBs observed. For analysis, pacing and
 rocking+ were combined as 'motor ARB'. All recorded ARBs
 (including rare forms not falling into the three main categories) were
 also pooled for further analysis: Pooled ARB. Data shared here are counts
 of ARB presence. The number of scans per subject is also supplied. For
 negative experiences over the lifespan, we identified 12 types of
 challenge (events or facility practices likely to induce negative affect).
 Two pertained to current housing: an adverse cage location (low, near the
 door); and being singly-caged. Ten (extracted from facility records)
 pertained to past experiences: maternal loss in infancy; being born and
 raised indoors; living indoors; spending time singly-caged; being
 relocated; being aggressed by a cagemate; losing a cagemate; involvement
 in research projects; health events (including research procedures); and
 spending time in hospital. To capture variation in aversiveness, every
 monkey was scored (blind to their behavioural data) between 0 and 1 for
 each challenge (where 0 is best for welfare, 1 is worst). For robustness,
 for 10 of the items we used two methods for this, varying in how
 differential experiences were weighted: a 'min-max' method
 divided a subject's scores by the dataset's greatest value for
 that challenge; and a 'quantiles' method scored each subjects
 categorically by ranks (typically quartiles) for each challenge. The two
 items pertaining to infancy (age when separated from mother; type of
 indoor/outdoor reading facility) were always scored 0-1 based on
 categories. All 22 scores are shared here. (Raw values are not shared for
 reasons of confidentiality). These scores were totalled to create two
 *Lifetime Negative Experience Scores* (maximum 12). *Current Negative
 Experience* and *Past Negative Experience Scores* (respective maxima 2,
 10) were also created for analysis (again two for each, one based on the
 quantiles method and one based on the 'min-max' method). These
 six *Negative Experience Scores* are also shared here. ### Files and
 variables #### File:
 Mason_et_al._2025_with_anonymized_cage_and_no_Monkey_ID.xlsx Each row is
 one monkey. **Abbreviations:** DV = dependent variable in main analysis IV
 = independent variable in main analysis Random = Set as random intercept
 in main analysis ARB - abnormal repetitive behaviour Neg Exp = Negative
 Experience min-max = a score per challenge on a 0-1 scale, created by
 dividing a subject's scores by the dataset's greatest value for
 that challenge quants = a score per challenge on a 0-1 scale based on a
 'quantiles' method scored each subjects categorically by ranks
 (typically quartiles)  loc = location current = current (i.e. status
 during period of data collection) **Column headings:** Count of
 Scans: *Number of observation scans in total* DV Rock+: Rock+ = rocking,
 swinging etc. cluster of ARBs *(number of observations present)* DV Pace:
 *Pacing and headswinging cluster of ARBs (number of observations present)*
 DV hairplucking: *Plucking self* *(number of observations present)* DV
 Motor ARB (Pace + Rock+): *This column combines the rocking group and the
 pacing group to form a pragmatic 'motor ARB' group (number of
 observations present)* DV ARB Pooled: *This group combines all ARBs
 observed (including rare forms not captured by the original main three
 categories* IV CURR NEG EXP SCORE (quant-based): *Sums scores for current
 cage location and degree of single housing, using quantiles-based
 categories* IV PAST NEG EXP SCORE (quant-based): *Sums scores for all 10
 items of past negative experience, using quantiles-based categories* IV
 LIFE NEG EXP SCORE (quant-based): *Sums all 12 scores for all 12
 challenges, using quantiles-based categories* IV CURRENT NEG EXP SCORE
 (min-max): *Sums min-max-based scores for current cage location and degree
 of single housing* IV PAST NEG EXP SCORE (min-max): *Sums min-max-based
 scores for all 10 past challenges* IV LIFE NEG EXP SCORE (min-max): *Sums
 all 12 min-max-based scores for all 12 challenges* IVAge in yrs: *Monkey
 age in years* IVSex: *Sex where F = female, M = male* IVCentre: *Centre
 (facility) - anonymized* Cage (random): *Cage ID - anonymized* Room
 (random): *Room ID - anonymized* The following items are the 12 challenges
 used to create composite Negative Experience Scores, each on a 0-1 scale
 (where 0 is best for welfare, while 1 is worst): Cage loc score
 (min-max): *Score for physical location of cage (distance from door + top
 or bottom row in room), created using min-max scale* Cage loc score
 (quants): *Score for physical location of cage (distance from door + top
 or bottom row in room), created using category-based (e.g. quantile-based)
 scores* Curr % obv. Single-caged: *Proportion of scans spent single-caged
 (grate-separations from cagemates scored as 50% as severe as full
 separation from neighbours)* Curr social as categories: *Time currently
 spent single-caged using category-based scores* Time single-caged
 (min-max): *Total time spent single-caged over life, on a min-max scale*
 Time single-caged (quants): *Total time spent single-caged over life,
 scored by quantile* Time in hospital (min-max) : *Total time spent in
 hospital over life, on a min-max scale)* Time in hospital (quants): *Total
 time spent in hospital over life, scored by quantile* Pair separations
 (min-max): *Number of times separated from a cagemate over life, on a
 min-max scale* Pair separations (quants): *Number of times separated from
 a cagemate over life, scored by quantile* Number of projects
 (min-max): N*umber of research projects involved in over life, on a
 min-max scale* Number of projects (quants): *Number of research projects
 involved in over life, scored by quantile* Negative health events
 (min-max): *Number of adverse heath events (e.g. vet treatments, invasive
 research procedures) over life, scored by quantile* Negative health events
 (quants): *Number of adverse heath events (e.g. vet treatments, invasive
 research procedures) over life, on a min-max scale* Unsuccessful pairings
 (min-max): *Number of incompatible (aggressive) cagemates over life, on a
 min-max scale* Unsuccessful pairings (categories): *Number of incompatible
 (aggressive) cagemates over life, using category-based scores* Location
 moves (min-max): *Number of cage moves over life, on a min-max scale*
 Location moves (quants): *Number of cage moves over life, scored by
 quantile* Time spent indoors (min-max): *Total time spent indoors over
 life, on a min-max scale* Time spent indoors (quants): *Total time spent
 indoors over life, scored by quantile* Rearing enclosure score: *Size and
 location of enclosure in infancy, as a category-based score* Time with
 mother score: *Age at which separated from mother, as a category-based
 score* ## Code/software Excel ## Access information Other publicly
 accessible locations of the data: * None Data was derived from the
 following sources: * Private records of two US National Primate Centres