Social licking in dairy cattle—Effects on heart rate in performers and receivers
Using heart rate (HR) measurements we investigated whether potential calming effects of social licking were evident for both active (performers) and passive (receivers) licking partners. A HR decline was assumed to indicate relaxation and thus the experience of positive emotions. Effects of the licking category (spontaneous, solicited), the animals’ basic activity (standing, lying) and the […]
Measuring judgement bias and emotional reactivity in sheep following long-term exposure to unpredictable and aversive events
Animal welfare research is now starting to measure the cognitive component of affective states in an effort to improve welfare assessments of animals. Twenty-six Romane ewe lambs were trained to a spatial location task previously demonstrated to test for judgement bias in sheep. This required a go/no-go response according to the location of a bucket […]
Heart rate variability as a measure of autonomic regulation of cardiac activity for assessing stress and welfare in farm animals — A review
Measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to investigate the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, especially the balance between sympathetic and vagal activity. It has been proven to be very useful in humans for both research and clinical studies concerned with cardiovascular diseases, diabetic autonomic dysfunction, hypertension […]
Emotional experience in sheep: Predictability of a sudden event lowers subsequent emotional responses
The study of emotions in animals can be approached thanks to a framework derived from appraisal theories developed in cognitive psychology, according to which emotions are triggered when the individual evaluates challenging events. This evaluation is based on a limited number of criteria such as the familiarity and the predictability of an event. If animals […]
Appraisal process in sheep (Ovis aries): Interactive effect of suddenness and unfamiliarity on cardiac and behavioral responses
Appraisal theories state that an emotion results from an individual’s evaluation of a stimulating event, which is based on a set of criteria. Each criterion triggers specific expressions that can be modulated by the outcome of other criteria. The authors analyzed the effects of the criteria of suddenness, unfamiliarity, and their combination on behavioral and […]