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Departamento de Etología, Division Neurociencias, Instituto Mexicano de Psiquiatría

Government Agency

Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Departamento de Etología, Division Neurociencias, Instituto Mexicano de Psiquiatría (Established 1983)
Camino de Xochimilco 101 , Mexico , Distrito Federal 14370 Mexico
Phone: (015) 6552811 ext. 193 Fax: (015) 6559980 E-mail: rmc@neuroserver.imp-neuro.edu.mx

Mission: The main mission of our department, and the reason why it was placed in a Psychiatry Institute, is to provide with studies that relate mechanisms of proximal and ultimate causation of behavior in non human primates, and their relation to the evolution of human social behavior and mind. Of main institutional interest is the study of how monkeys manage conflict and cooperation and the adaptive role of some kinds of anxiety and mild depressions.

Principal Research Programs: 1. Comparative studies of spontaneous social behavior and social cognition of two species of monkeys kept in outdoor captivity: stumptail macaques ("Macaca arctoides") and spider monkeys ("Ateles geoffroyi") related to their different mating systems. 2. Reproductive behavior and physiology of the above mentioned species. 3. Personality and temperament studies of the above mentioned studies. 4. Enhancing captive spider monkeys reproduction by means of assisted reproduction techniques (artificial insemination, etc.). 5. The study of complex behaviors and emotions in relation to evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry (e.g., guilt, dysthimia, anxiety).

Training Opportunities: We provide educational opportunities for precollege, college, graduate and postgraduate students. Depending on the student level the program focus ranges from introducing to measuring behavior techniques to support of original research (as long as it does not involves intrusive manipulations, increasing intragroup aggression or testing potentially toxic or highly addictive drugs). Main topics concern the relationship between psychological, ontogeny and physiological mechanisms as the proximate factors responsible for maintaining functionality or ultimate causation. No monetary support is available, but we can provide lodgings and meals to visitors.

Number of Staff: Total (5)

Species Supported: "Macaca arctoides" (30); "Ateles geoffroyi" (8)

Entry created: 1998-07-06
Review requested: 2003-11-17
Entry last reviewed: 2007-02-27

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