Publications

Spatial cognition in zebrafish: The role of strain and rearing environment

Two strains of zebrafish, WIK and a second-generation wild strain were reared in either a structurally simple or complex environment and compared in their ability to locate a food reward in a five-chambered maze. There was a significant interaction within...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Environmental Enrichment, HousingAnimal Type: Fish, Zebrafish

Citation: Spence, R., Magurran, A. E., Smith, C. 2011. Spatial cognition in zebrafish: The role of strain and rearing environment. Animal Cognition 14(4), 607–612.

Refinement of the motorised laminectomy-assisted rat spinal cord injury model by analgesic treatment

Usage and reporting of analgesia in animal models of spinal cord injury (SCI) have been sparse and requires proper attention. The majority of experimental SCI research uses rats as an animal model. This study aimed to probe into the effects...

Year Published: 2024Topics: Disease/Experimental ModelAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Sreelatha, H. V., Palekkodan, H., Fasaludeen, A. et al. 2024. Refinement of the motorised laminectomy-assisted rat spinal cord injury model by analgesic treatment. PLOS ONE 19(1), e0294720.

Report of the 2022 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group Meeting

The RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group has held a one-day meeting every autumn for the last 29 years, so that its members can discuss current welfare research, exchange views on welfare issues and share experiences of the implementation of the 3Rs...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental Enrichment, Euthanasia, HandlingAnimal Type: Mouse, Other Rodent, Rat, Rodent

Citation: Stevens, C., Hammonds, T., Hinchcliffe, J. et al. 2023. Report of the 2022 RSPCA/UFAW Rodent Welfare Group Meeting. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(2), 91–100.

Rehoming and other refinements and replacement in procedures using golden hamsters in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research

Effective vaccines are needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty golden hamsters were inoculated with two promising vaccine candidates and eighteen animals were used in pilot trials with viral challenge. ELISA assays were performed to determine endpoint serum titres for...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Disease/Experimental ModelAnimal Type: Hamster, Rodent

Citation: Štrbenc, M., Kuhar, U., Lainšček, D. et al. 2023. Rehoming and other refinements and replacement in procedures using golden hamsters in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine research. Animals 13(16), 2616.

Fear of the new? Geckos hesitate to attack novel prey, feed near objects and enter a novel space

Neophobia, the fear of novelty, is an ecologically important response which enables animals to avoid potentially harmful situations. Neophobia is a cognitive process by which individuals distinguish novelty from familiarity. In this study, we aimed to quantify this cognitive process...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Lizard, Reptile

Citation: Szabo, B., Ringler, E. 2023. Fear of the new? Geckos hesitate to attack novel prey, feed near objects and enter a novel space. Animal Cognition 26(2), 537–549.

Changes in the anxiety-like and fearful behavior of shrimp following daily threatening experiences

Behavioral variation in animals is often influenced by experience. Previous studies have found that daily threatening experiences can enhance fear- and anxiety-like behaviors in some vertebrates. However, it is unclear whether the change in fear/anxiety behavior occurs in invertebrates. The...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Takahashi, K. 2022. Changes in the anxiety-like and fearful behavior of shrimp following daily threatening experiences. Animal Cognition 25(2), 319–327.

Insensitivity to reward shifts in zebrafish (Danio rerio) and implications for assessing affective states

Theory and empirical findings predict that individuals in a negative affective state are more sensitive to unexpected reward loss and less sensitive to unexpected reward gain compared to individuals in a neutral or positive affective state. We explore the use...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Fish, Zebrafish

Citation: Tan, S. L. T., Handasyde, K. A., Rault, J.-L. et al. 2020. Insensitivity to reward shifts in zebrafish (Danio rerio) and implications for assessing affective states. Animal Cognition 23(1), 87–100

Classification of multiple emotional states from facial expressions in head-fixed mice using a deep learning-based image analysis

Facial expressions are widely recognized as universal indicators of underlying internal states in most species of animals, thereby presenting as a non-invasive measure for assessing physical and mental conditions. Despite the advancement of artificial intelligence-assisted tools for automated analysis of...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Tanaka, Y., Nakata, T., Hibino, H. et al. 2023. Classification of multiple emotional states from facial expressions in head-fixed mice using a deep learning-based image analysis. PLOS ONE 18(7), e0288930.

Rat playpens—The effect on welfare, technical time and budget

Year Published: 2023Topics: Environmental Enrichment, HousingAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Tough, B. 2023, August. Rat playpens—The effect on welfare, technical time and budget. Animal Technology and Welfare 22(2), 156–157.

Social enrichment improves social recognition memory in male rats

The social environment is thought to have a strong impact on cognitive functions. In the present study, we investigated whether social enrichment could affect rats' memory ability using the “Different Objects Task (DOT),” in which the levels of memory load...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Toyoshima, M., Yamada, K., Sugita, M. et al. 2018. Social enrichment improves social recognition memory in male rats. Animal Cognition 21(3), 345–351.