Investigating social timing with marmoset pairs

In a recently published study by the WP Accommodation, researchers found that pairs of marmoset monkeys take turns feeding and being vigilant, in situations where it is not possible to do both actions simultaneously. But in order to do this, they must be able to influence each other’s behavior, i.e., ‘couple’. “We found that marmosets can couple flexibly and that they couple more strongly if they are initially out-of-sync with their partner,” says Nikhil Phaniraj, co-first author of the study and PhD candidate of Prof. Judith M. Burkart at the University of Zürich.

In their work, the group provide a novel mathematical framework, tailored for studying synchronization in biological systems. The framework helped them investigate how this turn taking behavior in marmosets developed over time. “This study highlights how a behavior such as vigilance which is not traditionally thought to be providing insights into an animal’s cognitive mechanisms can be leveraged to show how much marmosets can take the behavior of others into account”, says Dr. Rahel K. Brügger, co-first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at Prof. Judith M. Burkart’s group at the University of Zürich. According to the authors,  marmosets seem to be a promising model for researching the cognitive aspects of social timing.

The paper is featured on the cover of the May issue of PLOS Computational Biology.