Emotion, Pain, & Sentience

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.

In the zone: Towards a comparative study of flow state in primates

Flow is an altered state of feeling ‘in the zone' when fully absorbed in a challenge and is associated with positive affective state (feelings). Despite almost five decades of research, Flow has not yet been recognized in nonhuman animals, despite...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Chimpanzee, Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Clark, F. E. 2023. In the zone: Towards a comparative study of flow state in primates. Animal Behavior and Cognition 10(1), 62–88.

Effect of environmental exposure to a maternally-learned odorant on anxiety-like behaviors at weaning in mice

Early sensory experience, such as exposure to maternal or other environmental factors, is considered to influence neurocognitive development and behaviors. In many species, exposure to odorants during pregnancy or lactation impacts the morpho-functional development of the olfactory circuitry with changes...

Year Published: 2020Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental Enrichment, Rearing & WeaningAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Dewaele, A., Badonnel, K., Persuy, M.-A. et al. 2020. Effect of environmental exposure to a maternally-learned odorant on anxiety-like behaviors at weaning in mice. Animal Cognition 23(5), 881–891.

When should we ascribe sentience to animals? A commentary on “Hermit crabs, shells and sentience” (Elwood 2022)

In a new review article, experiments on hermit crab behaviour are discussed in the context of possible animal sentience. Sentience can be defined as the ability to experience feelings such as pleasure or pain but there are also broader definitions...

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

Citation: Briffa, M. 2022. When should we ascribe sentience to animals? A commentary on “Hermit crabs, shells and sentience” (Elwood 2022). Animal Cognition 25(6), 1375–1380.

Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics

Fish are one of the most highly utilised vertebrate taxa by humans; they are harvested from wild stocks as part of global fishing industries, grown under intensive aquaculture conditions, are the most common pet and are widely used for scientific...

Year Published: 2015Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish, Salmon, Shark & Ray, Tilapia, Trout, Zebrafish

Citation: Brown, C. 2015. Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics. Animal Cognition 18(1), 1–17.

Smart sharks: A review of chondrichthyan cognition

450 million years of evolution have given chondrichthyans (sharks, rays and allies) ample time to adapt perfectly to their respective everyday life challenges and cognitive abilities have played an important part in that process. The diversity of niches that sharks...

Year Published: 2023Topics: Emotion, Pain, & SentienceAnimal Type: Fish, Shark & Ray

Citation: Brown, C., Schluessel, V. 2023. Smart sharks: A review of chondrichthyan cognition. Animal Cognition 26(1), 175–188.

Early-life object exposure with a habituated mother reduces fear reactions in foals

Fear reactions in horses are a major cause of horse–human accidents, and identification of effective pathways for reduction in fearfulness can help decreasing the frequency of accidents. For a young mammal, the mother is one of the most salient aspects...

Year Published: 2016Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Rearing & WeaningAnimal Type: Equine

Citation: Christensen, J. W. 2016. Early-life object exposure with a habituated mother reduces fear reactions in foals. Animal Cognition 19(1), 171–179.

Impact of environmental complexity and stocking density on affective states of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Environmental condition, such as environmental complexity or stocking density, can directly or indirectly influence animal emotion and ultimately, affective state. Affective states of animals can be assessed through judgement bias tests, evaluating responses to ambiguous situations. In this study, we...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Stocking DensityAnimal Type: Fish, Trout

Citation: Anderson, M. G., Campbell, A. M., Kuhn, D. D. et al. 2022. Impact of environmental complexity and stocking density on affective states of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Animal Cognition 25(5), 1331–1343.