Intrinsic anticipatory motives in non-human primate food consumption behavior

Future-oriented behavior is regarded as a cornerstone of human cognition. One key phenomenon through which future orientation can be studied is the delay of gratification, when consumption of an immediate reward is withstood to achieve a larger reward later. The delays used in animal delay of gratification paradigms are rather short to be considered relevant for studying human-like future orientation. Here, for the first time, we show that rhesus macaques exhibit human-relevant future orientation downregulating their operant food consumption in anticipation of a nutritionally equivalent but more palatable food with an unprecedentedly long delay of approximately 2.5 h. Importantly, this behavior is not a result of conditioning but intrinsic to the animals. Our results show that the cognitive time horizon of primates, when tested in ecologically valid foraging-like experiments, extends much further into the future than previously considered, opening up new avenues for translational biomedical research. [Display omitted] •Two-session operant task reveals extended timescale of food anticipation in primates•Macaques decreased food consumption anticipating a more palatable meal 2.5h later•Anticipation of the meal schedule arose after the very first exposure to the task•In the focal condition, responses were withheld 20 min longer relative to control Biological sciences; Neuroscience; Behavioral neuroscience