Prenatal Zika Virus Exposure Alters the Interaction Between Affective Processing and Decision-Making in Juvenile Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Many challenges during pregnancy can disrupt fetal development and have varying consequences on the subsequent psychological development of infants. Notably, exposure to infectious pathogens during fetal development, such as those encountered in viral pandemics, has been associated with persistent developmental consequences on infants’ brains and behavior. However, the underlying mechanisms and the degree to which neural plasticity over infancy may accommodate fetal insults remain unclear. To address this gap, we investigated the interaction between affective processing and decision-making in a cohort of rhesus monkey juveniles exposed to Zika virus (ZIKV) during fetal development, a pathogen known to profoundly disrupt central nervous system development. Ten juveniles exposed to ZIKV during their fetal development and nine procedure-matched controls (CONs) completed a judgment bias task with and without a negative mood induction. Although ZIKV exposure did not impact the monkeys’ decision-making processes during the task or the magnitude of their behavioral responses to the mood induction procedure, it did alter the influence of mood induction on decision-making. Although CON monkeys exhibited significantly more conservative decision-making following negative mood induction, the decision-making of Zika-exposed monkeys remained consistent among conditions. These findings suggest that fetal exposure to ZIKV impacts the neural systems involved in integrating affective and cognitive information, with potential long-term implications for learning, memory, and emotion regulation.