Emotion, Pain, & Sentience

What can associations between emotional states and management-based measures teach us about shelter dogs’ welfare? Journal of Veterinary Behavior 69–70, 32–38

It is crucial to understand the effect of living in a shelter on dog's well-being. We hypothesized that mental states may indicate the presence of environmental stressors. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between specific emotional...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Husbandry & Management, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Cuglovici, D. A. 2023. What can associations between emotional states and management-based measures teach us about shelter dogs' welfare? Journal of Veterinary Behavior 69–70, 32–38.

More exploratory house mice judge an ambiguous situation more negatively

Exploration tendency, one of the most investigated animal personality traits, may be driven by either positive (when seeking interesting information) or negative (to reduce the uncertainty of the environment) affective/emotional profiles. To disentangle the valence of the affective state associated...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, PersonalityAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Verjat, A., Devienne, P., Rödel, H. G. et al. 2021. More exploratory house mice judge an ambiguous situation more negatively. Animal Cognition 24(1), 53–64.

Qualitative Behavioural Assessment as a welfare indicator for farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in response to a stressful challenge

Animal welfare assessments have struggled to investigate the emotional states of animals while focusing solely on available empirical evidence. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) may provide insights into an animal's subjective experiences without compromising scientific rigor. Rather than assessing explicit, physical...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Fish, Salmon

Citation: Wiese, T. R., Rey Planellas, S., Betancor, M. et al. 2023. Qualitative Behavioural Assessment as a welfare indicator for farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in response to a stressful challenge. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10.

Chronic social comparison elicits depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in male rats

Social comparison is a fundamental human characteristic; however, long-term social comparison may induce psychological stress and can lead to depression and anxiety. Recent studies have shown that nonhuman primates compare themselves with others; however, no studies have investigated whether social...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Xue, B., Ma, Y.-Y., Zhu, J.-Y. et al. 2023. Chronic social comparison elicits depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in male rats. Animal Cognition 26(5), 1505–1519.

Emotional contagion and social support in pigs with the negative stimulus

This study expects to confirm the existence of emotional transmission in pigs from multiple perspectives and to provide theoretical references for improving animal welfare in livestock farming. A group that could directly observe (DO) and a group that could not...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Zhang, Y., Yu, J., Zhang, Y. et al. 2023. Emotional contagion and social support in pigs with the negative stimulus. Animals 13(20), 3160.

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.

The glass is not yet half empty: Agitation but not Varroa treatment causes cognitive bias in honey bees

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are prone to judge an ambiguous stimulus negatively if they had been agitated through shaking which simulates a predator attack. Such a cognitive bias has been suggested to reflect an internal emotional state analogous to humans...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Husbandry & Management, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Insect & Spider, Invertebrate

Citation: Schlüns, H., Welling, H., Federici, J. R. et al. 2017. The glass is not yet half empty: Agitation but not Varroa treatment causes cognitive bias in honey bees. Animal Cognition 20(2), 233–241.