Fondation Vallée

ABSTRACTArboreal bipedalism is suggested as a precursor and adaptive locomotor mode for the immediate ancestor of hominin terrestrial bipedalism, yet detailed investigation of its locomotor biomechanics is hindered by its low frequency and observation difficulties in free‐ranging hominoids. Further difficulties are faced in the creation and installation of a suitable experimental setup in natural settings. Captive studies may potentially reduce logistical issues, but data on arboreal bipedalism are scarce. We present an experimental design and protocol for collecting video data on arboreal bipedalism in captive primates, from which qualitative and quantitative gait data can be extracted. Our protocol increases the frequency of this rare behavior. Data were collected on six adult chimpanzees (three males, three females) at La Vallée des Singes, Romagne, France. The chimpanzees voluntarily engaged with a simulated arboreal foraging scenario consisting of two parallel PVC tubes and a high‐value food reward. Five GoPro cameras recorded interactions with the experimental equipment. For validation of the effectiveness of our experimental design, protocol interactions were identified as successful (activity completed) or unsuccessful. All age and sex classes had successful interactions. Full strides were observed alongside the identification of two forms of arboreal bipedalism, forward‐facing and sideways. This highlights the variation within the arboreal bipedalism locomotor category and the capacity for our experimental design to provide suitable data for gait parameter analysis and interspecies comparisons. Our protocol thus permits detailed investigation of arboreal bipedalism's role in the evolution of hominin bipedalism.

The neurodevelopmental dimension represents a major challenge for the future of precision psychiatry. It provides a transdiagnostic framework, that allows for the redefinition of psychiatric disorders beyond traditional diagnostic categories, such as autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. This model is based on the identification of deviations in brain developmental trajectories during critical periods of vulnerability. Using multimodal approaches that integrate clinical, biological, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological data, this framework aims to define an individualized neurodevelopmental burden, opening up new prospects for stratification and the development of personalized treatments tailored to each developmental profile.

Research on manipulative abilities in nonhuman primates, in the context of hominid evolution, has mostly focused on manual/pedal postures considered as static behaviors. While these behavioral repertoires highlighted the range of manipulative abilities in many species, manipulation is a dynamic process that mostly involves successive types of grips before reaching its goal. The present study aims to investigate the use of manual/pedal postures in zoo-housed bonobos in diverse dynamic food processing by using an innovative approach: the optimal matching analysis that compares sequences (i.e., succession of grasping postures) with each other. To characterize the manipulative techniques spontaneously employed by bonobos, we performed this sequential analysis of manual/pedal postures during 766 complete feeding sequences of 17 individuals. We analyzed the effectiveness with a score defined by a partial proxy of food intake (i.e., the number of mouthfuls) linked to a handling score measuring both the diversity and changes of manual postures during each sequence. We identified four techniques, used differently depending on the physical substrate on which the individual performed food manipulation and the food physical properties. Our results showed that manipulative techniques were more complex (i.e., higher handling score) for large foods and on substrates with lower stability. But the effectiveness score was not significantly lower for these items since manipulative complexity seemed to be compensated by a greater number of mouthfuls. It appeared that the techniques employed involved a trade-off between manipulative complexity and the amount of food ingested. This study allowed us to test and validate innovative analysis methods that are applicable to diverse ethological studies involving sequential events. Our results bring new data for a better understanding of the evolution of manual abilities in primates in association with different ecological contexts and both terrestrial and arboreal substrates and suggest that social and individual influences need to be explored further.

Abstract Background. Repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests (RRBI) are core symptoms of autism with a complex entity and are commonly categorized into ‘motor-driven’ and ‘cognitively-driven’. RRBI symptomatology depends on the individual’s clinical environment limiting the understanding of RRBI physiology, particularly their associated neuroanatomical structures. The complex RRBI heterogeneity needs to explore the whole RRBI spectrum by integrating the clinical context (autistic individuals, their relatives and typical developing (TD) individuals). We hypothesized that different RRBI dimensions would emerge by exploring the whole spectrum of RRBI, and that these dimensions are associated with neuroanatomical signatures - involving cortical & subcortical areas. Method. A sample of 792 individuals composed of 267 autistic subjects, their 370 first-degree relatives and 155 TD individuals was enrolled in the study. We assessed the whole patterns of RRBI in each individual by using the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. We estimated brain volumes using MRI scanner for a subsample of the subjects (n=152, 42 ASD, 89 relatives and 13 TD). We first investigated the dimensionality of RRBI by performing a principal component analysis on all items of these scales and included all the sampling population. We then explored the relationship between RRBI-derived factors with brain volumes using linear regression models. Results. We identified 3 main factors (with 30.3% of the RRBI cumulative variance): Factor 1 (FA1, 12.7%) reflected mainly the ‘motor-driven’ RRBI symptoms; Factor 2 and 3 (respectively 8.8% and 7.9%) gathered mainly Y-BOCS related items and represented the ‘cognitively-driven’ RRBI symptoms. These three factors were significantly associated with the right/left putamen volumes but with opposite effects: FA1 was negatively associated with an increased volume of the right/left putamen conversely to FA2 & FA3 (all uncorrected p<0.05). FA1 was negatively associated with the left amygdala (uncorrected p<0.05), and FA2 was positively associated with the left parietal structure (uncorrected p=0.001). Conclusion. Our results suggested 3 coherent RRBI dimensions involving the putamen commonly and other structures according to the RRBI dimension. The exploration of the putamen’s integrative role in RSBI needs to be strengthened in further studies.

As an integral part of autism spectrum symptoms, sensory processing issues including both hypo and hyper sensory sensitivities. These sensory specificities may result from an excitation/inhibition imbalance with a poorly understood of their level of convergence with genetic alterations in GABA-ergic and glutamatergic pathways. In our study, we aimed to characterize the hypo/hyper-sensory profile among autistic individuals. We then explored its link with the burden of deleterious mutations in a subset of individuals with available whole-genome sequencing data. To characterize the hypo/hyper-sensory profile, the differential Short Sensory Profile (dSSP) was defined as a normalized and centralized hypo/hypersensitivity ratio from the Short Sensory Profile (SSP). Including 1136 participants (533 autistic individuals, 210 first-degree relatives, and 267 controls) from two independent study samples (PARIS and LEAP), we observed a statistically significant dSSP mean difference between autistic individuals and controls, driven mostly by a high dSSP variability, with an intermediated profile represented by relatives. Our genetic analysis tended to associate the dSSP and the hyposensitivity with mutations of the GABAergic pathway. The major limitation was the dSSP difficulty to discriminate subjects with a similar quantum of hypo- and hyper-sensory symptoms to those with no such symptoms, resulting both in a similar ratio score of 0. However, the dSSP could be a relevant clinical score, and combined with additional sensory descriptions, genetics and endophenotypic substrates, will improve the exploration of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of sensory processing differences in autism spectrum.

IntroductionChild hospitalization is a difficult event in the life for the whole family, probably worst for families coming from far away, specially for accommodation. Ronald McDonald Houses (RMH) created in the immediate proximity of pediatric departments of hospitals, allows hospitalized children to benefit from the presence of his family nearby. The hypothesis that the family is stronger when it is grouped together (the “family-centered-care” concept) remains difficult to demonstrate (Cochrane, 2012). In France, there is no study describing the interest of such places, and families experiences.ObjectivesOur objectives are to describe the experience of parents in French RMH.MethodsA cross-sectional study conducted between February and April 2016, invited 50 families to participate in the 9 French RMH, by feeling an anonymous questionnaire (socio-demographic characteristics, items related to hospitalization, anxiety and depression scale -HADS, conditions of stay at the house). Descriptive statistics presented mothers and fathers experience.Results Parents of 333 hospitalized child participated : 320 mothers, 246 fathers. 44.1% of child were aged less than one year. Services more represented were : intensive care unit, oncology and neonatal. Parents were socially rather disadvantaged, living mainly in couples, with an estimated mean home-hospital time of 2 hours. They reported financial problems (>40%), sleep deprivation (>1.5 hours), and anxiety-depressive disorders: anxiety (>50%) and depression (>20%). Satisfaction staying in the house was extremely high (>95%).Conclusions We observe an undeniable added value of the RMH in the care. Nevertheless, the high level of psychological suffering shows the importance of offering help at the psycho-social level.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Si les super-héros ont nourri la génération de ceux qui sont parents et thérapeutes aujourd’hui, est-il si sûr que les imaginaires de leurs enfants et adolescents en soient autant tributaires ? Dans notre pratique clinique, la référence aux héros des mangas est bien plus fréquente. Pour autant, est-il possible de faire une typologie du héros de manga, tant ils sont nombreux et différents ? Nous avons plutôt cherché l’évolution du super-héros via le héros de manga à travers une modification de la conceptualisation du sujet dans nos sociétés poststructuralistes. Une conceptualisation contaminée par les nosographies psychiatriques, d’où notre proposition pour le héros actuel du terme de dys-héros.

In primates, yawn contagion (the yawning response elicited by others' yawn) is variably influenced by individual (e.g., sex, age) and social factors (e.g., familiarity) and possibly linked to interindividual synchronization, coordination, and emotional contagion. Two out of three studies on yawn contagion in bonobos (Pan paniscus), found the presence of the phenomenon with mixed results concerning the effect of familiarity and no replication on its modulating factors. To address this puzzling issue, we recorded all occurrences data on yawn contagion in a captive bonobo group (March–June 2021; 18 individuals; La Vallée des Singes, France). Contrary to chimpanzees and humans, the number of triggering yawns increased contagion, possibly owing to a higher stimulus threshold. This aspect may explain the interindividual variability observed in yawn contagion rates. In subjects under weaning, we did not detect yawn contagion and, as it occurs in certain human cohorts, yawn contagion declined with age, possibly due to reduced sensitivity to others. Females responded more than males and elicited more responses from females when showing sexual swelling. As reproductive females are central in bonobo society, our results support the hypothesis that—as in other Hominini—the most influential sex can influence yawn contagion. The relationship quality (measured via grooming/play) did not affect yawn contagion, possibly due to bonobos' xenophilic nature. Overall, this study confirms the presence of yawn contagion in bonobos and introduces new elements on its modulating factors, pointing toward the necessity of cross‐group studies.

Human joint action seems special, as it is grounded in joint commitment—a sense of mutual obligation participants feel towards each other. Comparative research with humans and non-human great apes has typically investigated joint commitment by experimentally interrupting joint actions to study subjects’ resumption strategies. However, such experimental interruptions are human-induced, and thus the question remains of how great apes naturally handle interruptions. Here, we focus on naturally occurring interruptions of joint actions, grooming and play, in bonobos and chimpanzees. Similar to humans, both species frequently resumed interrupted joint actions (and the previous behaviours, like grooming the same body part region or playing the same play type) with their previous partners and at the previous location. Yet, the probability of resumption attempts was unaffected by social bonds or rank. Our data suggest that great apes experience something akin to joint commitment, for which we discuss possible evolutionary origins.