What can monkeys, porn and celebrities teach us about autism?

I've never been much for porn, but I admit to having wasted no small amount of time poring over celebrity magazines. In academe, where the mere mention of People triggers involuntary waves of disgust, it's an inconvenient habit. I hide my gossip contraband behind The New Yorker should any students or colleagues pass by. Given that my interest in celebrity peaked in graduate school, I assumed it was a form of stress relief. But recent research has shed some new light on what appears to be a very old, evolved habit.

In 2005 researchers at Duke University conducted the "Monkey Pay Per View" study. Twelve rhesus macaques were given the option of foregoing varying amounts of highly-prized cherry juice while looking at pictures of female monkey hindquarters and genitalia, as well as faces of high- and low-status monkeys in their social hierarchy. The study found that the monkeys would ‘pay' juice to look at pictures of female hindquarters and high-status monkeys (perhaps explaining why humans spend so much money on porn and celebrity magazines), but had to be bribed with extra juice to look at low-status monkeys.

The prized pictures of female booty don't exactly count as monkey porn. Macaques can't really differentiate between photos and the real thing; they were merely gathering the same type of social information on female receptivity that they would in the wild. Likewise, the time spent peering at high-status faces is a way for the monkeys to gather useful social information about their communal hierarchy. The study also found that the time monkeys spent looking at various photos varied depending on their own social standing: the high-ranking monkeys had to be bribed more to look at lower ranking monkeys, and low to mid-range monkeys would pay to look at images that were eschewed by the more well-to-do macaques. In addition, the high-ranking monkeys seemed to value their own reflection more, spending over 40% of their time looking at themselves when mirrors were placed in their cages, while lower ranking monkeys spent just 19% of their time admiring themselves.

While it's fun to speculate about how this macaque version of "The Hills" reflects on our own proclivities, there's actually a far more noble purpose for the study. It's part of an autism research initiative that uses monkeys to study the neurobiological origins of autism in a way that wouldn't be feasible with humans.The monkeys offer a pared-down animal model of complex social interaction - lab rats and mice don't really cut it - which can help researchers locate the ‘breaks' leading to autism in humans. For instance, a great deal of primate social hierarchy is determined by testosterone. Autism is far more prevalent among males, suggesting a possible hormone link. Impaired "joint" or social attention (directing your attention where others are looking) is one of the earliest indicators of autism. It's a simple developmental task, but the brain mechanisms and neuronal circuitry involved remain elusive. By using monkeys, researchers can more easily (and ethically) pinpoint the neurobiological origins of autism and develop appropriate treatments.

The 2005 study created the behavioral model for a follow up 2008 study which used similar tasks after surgically inserting motion-detecting coils in the macaques' eyes, and recording chambers above the parietal lobe to record neuronal activity. (You can see why you couldn't exactly do this with children.) The study determined for the first time that neurons in the parietal lobe signal the value of social information, guiding the monkey's social decisions. By pinpointing areas of the brain responsible for social decision-making in monkeys, researchers will be able to gain a better understanding of autism in the comparable (but more complex) human brain, hopefully generating eventual treatments.

I'm not going to run out and get a subscription to US Weekly, but the next time I find myself involved in the embarrassing and innumerable pettinesses of everyday social comparison, I'll try to marvel at the complexity of my human brain and not feel so bad.