Evaluating mood changes in response to anthropogenic noise with a response-slowing task in three species of zoo-housed primates
In the zoo environment, anthropogenic noise is common as sound levels fluctuate due to visitors, construction, habitat design, and special events. In this study, changes in the mood of three species of zoo-housed primates in response to a loud annual event were evaluated with the response-slowing paradigm. In this paradigm, animals experiencing anxiety slow responses […]
Emotional behavior in middle-aged rats: Implications for geriatric psychopathologies
Clinical findings reveal that middle-aged patients are more susceptible to suffer from psychiatric disorders than older ones. However, little is known about the emotional behavior of aging rodents. This study aimed to investigate behavioral alterations in male middle-aged Wistar rats in the open-field (OF) test (at illuminated and dimly light conditions), elevated plus maze (EPM), […]
Can ear postures reliably measure the positive emotional state of cows?
Animal welfare science is increasingly concerned with the promotion of positive emotions in animals, yet little is known about how to measure them. We examined whether ear postures in dairy cows were reliable indicators of a low arousal, positive emotional state. We conducted a total of 381, 15 min focal observations, across a group of […]
Housing conditions influence cortical and behavioural reactions of sheep in response to videos showing social interactions of different valence
Mood, as a long-term affective state, is thought to modulate short-term emotional reactions in animals, but the details of this interplay have hardly been investigated experimentally. Apart from a basic interest in this affective system, mood is likely to have an important impact on animal welfare, as bad mood may taint all emotional experience. In […]
Toward a Choice-Based Judgment Bias Task for Horses
Judgment bias tasks for nonhuman animals are promising tools to assess emotional valence as a measure of animal welfare. In view of establishing a valid judgment bias task for horses, the present study aimed to evaluate 2 versions (go/no-go and active choice) of an auditory judgment bias task for horses in terms of acquisition learning […]
Bottlenose dolphins engaging in more social affiliative behaviour judge ambiguous cues more optimistically
Cognitive bias tests measure variation in emotional appraisal and are validated methods to assess animals’ affective states. However, the link between social behaviours and cognitive bias has not yet been investigated. Bottlenose dolphins are a gregarious species for whom welfare research is increasing in importance, and thus are a good model to test such an […]
Emotional affect and the occurrence of owner reported health problems in the domestic dog
Interactions between health, behaviour and individual differences such as; mood, affect or personality have been studied more in humans than they have in non-human animals. In humans, links can be made between personality and the expression of health problems, and between personality, affect, coping, treatment and recovery success. Previous research with animals has shown that […]