Emotion, Pain, & Sentience

Development and validation of a cynomolgus macaque grimace scale for acute pain assessment

Cynomolgus macaques may undergo surgical procedures for scientific and veterinary purposes. Recognition and assessment of pain using validated tools is a necessary first step for adequately managing pain in these primates. Grimace scales are one means of assessing the occurance...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Paterson, E. A., O’Malley, C. I., Moody, C. et al. 2023. Development and validation of a cynomolgus macaque grimace scale for acute pain assessment. Scientific Reports 13(1), 3209.

A comparative analysis of the cat stress score and the novel psychological quality of life assessment tool for cats in a shelter setting

Given that there were approximately 4 million cats in shelters across 20 countries in 2024, there is a critical need to have accurate, reliable, non-invasive tools to evaluate shelter cat stress and welfare. This study was conducted to validate the...

Year Published: 2026Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Cat

Citation: Lamon, T. K., Slater, M. R., Daigle, C. et al. 2026. A comparative analysis of the cat stress score and the novel psychological quality of life assessment tool for cats in a shelter setting. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 297, 106925.

Dimensions of corvid consciousness

Corvids have long been a target of public fascination and of scientific attention, particularly in the study of animal minds. Using Birch et al.’s (2020) 5-dimensional framework for animal consciousness we ask what it is like to be a corvid...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Bird, Other Bird

Citation: Veit, W., Browning, H., Garcia-Pelegrin, E. et al. 2025. Dimensions of corvid consciousness. Animal Cognition 28(1), 35.

Through the calf’s eye: Exploring infrared thermography to uncover pair-housed calves’ affective states

Pair housing has been proven to improve calves’ welfare during the pre-weaning phase, potentially promoting positive emotions. Based on the emotional valence hypothesis, according to which positive emotions are mainly processed in the left brain hemisphere, infrared thermography (IRT) may...

Year Published: 2026Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Cattle

Citation: Rossi, G. P., Barbieri, S., Costa, E. D. et al. 2026. Through the calf’s eye: Exploring infrared thermography to uncover pair-housed calves’ affective states. Animals 16(2).

Evidence of mood states in reptiles

There is increasing evidence that non-human animals experience ‘free-floating’ mood states, but such evidence is lacking in reptiles, hindering the debate as to their affective capacity and with subsequent implications for welfare. Here, we investigated the presence of a mood...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Reptile, Turtle & Tortoise

Citation: Hoehfurtner, T., Wilkinson, A., Moszuti, S. A. et al. 2025. Evidence of mood states in reptiles. Animal Cognition 28(1), 52.

Identification and validation of operational pain indicators in anurans

Amphibian welfare, particularly pain assessment in anurans, remains understudied despite their ecological and biomedical significance. This study aimed to identify and validate operational pain indicators for adult anurans under professional care. A four-phase approach was used: a systematic literature review,...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Amphibian, Frog & Toad

Citation: González, S., Caiozzi, A., Cabeza, O. et al. 2025. Identification and Validation of Operational Pain Indicators in Anurans. Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens 6(4).

Pain issues in poultry

This review highlights the possible pain experienced by layer and broiler poultry in modern husbandry conditions. Receptors which respond to noxous stimulation (nociceptors) have been identified and physiologically characterised in many different part of the body of the chicken including...

Year Published: 2011Topics: Abnormal/Problematic Behavior, Body Modification/Mutilation, Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Bird, Chicken

Citation: Gentle, M. J. 2011. Pain issues in poultry. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 135(3), 252–258.

Aggressive encounters lead to negative affective state in fish

Animals show various behavioural, neural and physiological changes in response to losing aggressive encounters. Here, we investigated affective state, which are emotion-like processes influenced by positive or negative experiences, in a territorial fish following aggressive encounters and explore links to...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish

Citation: Rogers, L., Sales, E., Shamsi, S. et al. 2020. Aggressive encounters lead to negative affective state in fish. PLOS ONE 15(4), e0231330.

Do arthropods respond to noxious stimuli purely by reflex?

Mikhalevich & Powell (2020) argue that it is wrong to dismiss the idea of sentience in invertebrates. Here, I expand on the evidence for crustaceans responding to noxious stimuli in ways that are not explained by mere reflexes, and that...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Crustacean, Invertebrate

Citation: Elwood, R. W. 2020. Do arthropods respond to noxious stimuli purely by reflex? Animal Sentience 29(10).

Similar levels of emotional contagion in male and female rats

Emotional contagion, the ability to feel what other individuals feel without necessarily understanding the feeling or knowing its source, is thought to be an important element of social life. In humans, emotional contagion has been shown to be stronger in...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Han, Y., Sichterman, B., Maria, C. et al. 2020. Similar levels of emotional contagion in male and female rats. Scientific Reports 10(1), 2763.