Publications

Mirror image stimulation could reverse social-isolation-induced aggressiveness in the high-level subsocial lactating spider

Conspecific aggressiveness often increases after social isolation for species that are not entirely solitary, and this increased aggression could also be reversed after resocialization. However, literature on this aggression plasticity refers to either permanently social or low-level subsocial species in...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Insect & Spider, Invertebrate

Citation: Dong, B., Liu, J.-X., Quan, R.-C. et al. 2022. Mirror image stimulation could reverse social-isolation-induced aggressiveness in the high-level subsocial lactating spider. Animal Cognition 25(5), 1345–1355.

Locomotor activity as an effective measure of the severity of inflammatory arthritis in a mouse model

Objective Mouse models are valuable in preclinical studies of inflammatory arthritis. However, current methods for measuring disease severity or responses to treatment are not optimal. In this study a smart cage system using multiple sensors to measure locomotor activity was...

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

Citation: Doucet, M. R., Laevski, A. M., Doiron, J. A. et al. 2024. Locomotor activity as an effective measure of the severity of inflammatory arthritis in a mouse model. PLOS ONE 19(1), e0291399.

What do we know about the use of EEG monitoring during equine anesthesia: A review

Electroencephalography is a noninvasive method used for the measurement of central nervous system bioelectrical activity. Besides its use for neurological disorders diagnostics in humans and animals, it was found to be useful as a part of the anesthetic monitoring. Introducing...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Drewnowska, O., Lisowska, B., Turek, B. 2019. What do we know about the use of EEG monitoring during equine anesthesia: A review. Applied Sciences 9(18), 3678.

Cognitive tasks as measures of pig welfare: A systematic review

Cognitive approaches are increasingly used to assess animal welfare, but no systematic review has been conducted on pigs despite their cognitive capacities. Our aims were two-fold: first, to assess the popularity and heterogeneity of this approach by quantifying the different...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Ede, T., Parsons, T. D. 2023. Cognitive tasks as measures of pig welfare: A systematic review. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

Caution is required when considering sentience in animals: A response to the commentary by Briffa (2022) on “Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience” (Elwood 2022)

My recent review examined the complex and intimate relationship between hermit crabs and the empty gastropod shells upon which they depend for survival. Because shells come with costs as well as benefits, the crabs are highly selective about which ones...

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

Citation: Elwood, R. W. 2022. Caution is required when considering sentience in animals: A response to the commentary by Briffa (2022) on “Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience” (Elwood 2022). Animal Cognition 25(6), 1371–1374.

Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience

Hermit crabs have an intimate relationship with gastropod shells and show numerous activities by which they locate, select, and change shells in different contexts. They gather information about new shells and update information about their existing shells. This involves integration...

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

Citation: Elwood, R. W. 2022. Hermit crabs, shells, and sentience. Animal Cognition 25(5), 1241–1257.

Behavioural indicators of pain and suffering in arthropods and might pain bite back?

Pain in response to tissue damage functions to change behaviour so that further damage is minimised whereas healing and survival are promoted. This paper focuses on the behavioural criteria that match the function to ask if pain is likely in...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Crustacean, Insect & Spider, Invertebrate

Citation: Elwood, R. W. 2023. Behavioural indicators of pain and suffering in arthropods and might pain bite back? Animals 13(16), 2602.

Environmental enrichment improves hippocampus-dependent spatial learning in female C57BL/6 mice in novel IntelliCage sweet reward-based behavioral tests

The IntelliCage is an automated home-cage system that allows researchers to investigate the spontaneous behavior and learning abilities of group-housed mice. The IntelliCage enables us to increase the standardization and reproducibility of behavioral outcomes by the omission of experimenter–mouse interactions....

Year Published: 2023Topics: Animal Training, Behavioral & Cognitive Testing, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Bramati, G., Stauffer, P., Nigri, M. et al. 2023. Environmental enrichment improves hippocampus-dependent spatial learning in female C57BL/6 mice in novel IntelliCage sweet reward-based behavioral tests. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 17.

Confronting back-of-house traditions: Primates as a case study

This review commentary focuses on traditional management practices and facility design with suggested improvements in non-public primate management areas, often called “back-of-house”, (henceforth BOH) in zoos, sanctuaries, and research facilities. Progress has been made toward improving animal quality of life...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Baboon, Capuchin, Chimpanzee, Lemur, Macaque, Marmoset, Nonhuman Primate, Other Nonhuman Primate, Owl Monkey, Squirrel Monkey, Vervet (African Green Monkey)

Citation: Brando, S., Coe, J. 2022. Confronting back-of-house traditions: Primates as a case study. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 3(3), 366–397.

Evaluating the accuracy of facial expressions as emotion indicators across contexts in dogs

Facial expressions potentially serve as indicators of animal emotions if they are consistently present across situations that (likely) elicit the same emotional state. In a previous study, we used the Dog Facial Action Coding System (DogFACS) to identify facial expressions...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Bremhorst, A., Mills, D. S., Würbel, H. et al. 2022. Evaluating the accuracy of facial expressions as emotion indicators across contexts in dogs. Animal Cognition 25(1), 121–136.