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Smith, A. V., Proops, L., Grounds, K., Wathan, J., & McComb, K. (2016). Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse (Equus caballus). Biol. Lett., 12(2).
Abstract: Whether non-human animals can recognize human signals, including emotions, has both scientific and applied importance, and is particularly relevant for domesticated species. This study presents the first evidence of horses' abilities to spontaneously discriminate between positive (happy) and negative (angry) human facial expressions in photographs. Our results showed that the angry faces induced responses indicative of a functional understanding of the stimuli: horses displayed a left-gaze bias (a lateralization generally associated with stimuli perceived as negative) and a quicker increase in heart rate (HR) towards these photographs. Such lateralized responses towards human emotion have previously only been documented in dogs, and effects of facial expressions on HR have not been shown in any heterospecific studies. Alongside the insights that these findings provide into interspecific communication, they raise interesting questions about the generality and adaptiveness of emotional expression and perception across species.
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Henry, S., Richard-Yris, M. - A., & Hausberger, M. (2006). Influence of various early human-foal interferences on subsequent human-foal relationship. Dev Psychobiol, 48(8), 712–718.
Abstract: Whereas the way animals perceive human contact has been particularly examined in pet animals, a small amount of investigations has been done in domestic ungulates. It was nevertheless assumed that, as pet animals, non-aggressive forms of tactile contact were as well rewarding or positive for these species, even though the features of intraspecific relationships in pet animals and domestic ungulates may be to some extent different.We test here the hypothesis that horses may not consider physical handling by humans as a positive event. When comparing different early human-foal interactions, we found that early exposure to a motionless human enhanced slightly foals reactions to humans whereas forced stroking or handling in early life did not improve later human-foal relation. Foals that were assisted during their first suckling (e.g., brought to the dam's teat) even tended to avoid human approach at 2 weeks, and physical contact at 1 month of age.We argue that interspecies differences may exist in how tactile stimulation is perceived. It may be important for the establishment of a bond that a young animal is active in the process and able, through its behavioral responses, to help define what is positive for it. This way of investigation may have important general implications in how we consider the development of social relations, both within and between species.
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Newberry, R. C., & Swanson, J. C. (2008). Implications of breaking mother-young social bonds. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 110(1-2), 3–23.
Abstract: Whereas mammalian mothers and young may retain long-term social affiliations in nature, the management of animals in captivity typically dictates that offspring are abruptly and permanently separated from their mothers at a relatively early age, often prior to the time of natural weaning. For animal breeders, this strategy can enhance the yield of offspring from a breeding population. Morbidity and mortality can also precipitate severance of mother-young bonds. Although it is recognized that early weaning provides nutritional challenges for the young, relatively little attention has been paid to the psychological consequences and long-term impacts of breaking the mother-young bond in non-human mammals. Furthermore, whereas great strides are being made in our understanding of the neurobiological and genetic underpinnings of social bonding, the mechanisms underlying the process of detachment following establishment of a mother-young bond remain relatively unexplored, although parallels can be drawn with processes involved in withdrawal from addictive substances. In this review, we outline mechanisms involved in social bonding. We consider the diversity in extent and duration of mother-young attachment across mammalian lineages and implications for predicting the outcome of severing ties between mothers and young at different times post-partum. We identify characteristics signalling emotional distress resulting from separation of mothers and young and discuss strategies for mitigating separation-induced distress. These include postponement of separation, ensuring high-quality maternal care of young prior to separation, providing bonded individuals with opportunities to separate voluntarily for brief periods prior to permanent separation, use of anti-suck devices prior to separation, allowing a period of partial (fence line) contact prior to full separation, providing substitutes for stimuli previously exchanged between mother and young, providing social buffers, gradual introduction to new housing arrangements, and pharmacological intervention. Areas for future research are proposed, including the use of functional neuroimaging technologies and functional genomics approaches, in combination with behavioural assessments of reinstatement motivation, individual recognition memory and long-term consequences of early separation, to shed further light on the nature of mother-young bonding and detachment in animals.
Keywords: Animal welfare; Emotion; Separation; Social attachment; Weaning
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Bartal, I. B. - A., Decety, J., & Mason, P. (2011). Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats. Science, 334(6061), 1427–1430.
Abstract: Whereas human pro-social behavior is often driven by empathic concern for another, it is unclear whether nonprimate mammals experience a similar motivational state. To test for empathically motivated pro-social behavior in rodents, we placed a free rat in an arena with a cagemate trapped in a restrainer. After several sessions, the free rat learned to intentionally and quickly open the restrainer and free the cagemate. Rats did not open empty or object-containing restrainers. They freed cagemates even when social contact was prevented. When liberating a cagemate was pitted against chocolate contained within a second restrainer, rats opened both restrainers and typically shared the chocolate. Thus, rats behave pro-socially in response to a conspecific�s distress, providing strong evidence for biological roots of empathically motivated helping behavior.
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Whiten, A. (2000). Social complexity and social intelligence. In Novartis Foundation Symposium (Vol. 233, pp. 185–96; discussion pp. 196–201).
Abstract: When we talk of the 'nature of intelligence', or any other attribute, we may be referring to its essential structure, or to its place in nature, particularly the function it has evolved to serve. Here I examine both, from the perspective of the evolution of intelligence in primates. Over the last 20 years, the Social (or 'Machiavellian') Intelligence Hypothesis has gained empirical support. Its core claim is that the intelligence of primates is primarily an adaptation to the special complexities of primate social life. In addition to this hypothesis about the function of intellect, a secondary claim is that the very structure of intelligence has been moulded to be 'social' in character, an idea that presents a challenge to orthodox views of intelligence as a general-purpose capacity. I shall outline the principal components of social intelligence and the environment of social complexity it engages with. This raises the question of whether domain specificity is an appropriate characterization of social intelligence and its subcomponents, like theory of mind. As a counter-argument to such specificity I consider the hypothesis that great apes exhibit a cluster of advanced cognitive abilities that rest on a shared capacity for second-order mental representation.
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Powell, A. J., & Wolff, P. R. (1982). Sex differences in mouse urination patterns. Anim. Behav., 30(4), 1207–1211.
Abstract: When tested in circular open fields male and female mice (Mus musculus) produced strongly centrifugal urination patterns, which showed a clear `edge-dependency' in all the field sizes used. However, striking sex differences in the pattern of deposition were shown in terms of both the number and distribution of the urine spots. Male mice produce large numbers of spots which are regularly dispersed, while females produce relatively fewer spots with a more clumped distribution. It is suggested that a hitherto unsuspected level of intersexual communication may explain these differences.
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Zentall, T. R., Sherburne, L. M., Roper, K. L., & Kraemer, P. J. (1996). Value transfer in a simultaneous discrimination appears to result from within-event pavlovian conditioning. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process, 22(1), 68–75.
Abstract: When pigeons acquire a simple simultaneous discrimination, some of the value acquired by the S+ transfers to the S-. The mechanism underlying this transfer of value was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, pigeons trained on two simultaneous discriminations (A + B- and C +/- D-) showed a preference for B over D. This preference was reduced, however, following the devaluation of A. In Experiment 2, when after the same original training, value was given to D, the pigeons' preference for C did not significantly increase. In Experiment 3, when both discriminations involved partial reinforcement (S +/-), A + C- training resulted in a preference for B over D, whereas B + D- training resulted in a preference for A over C. Thus, simultaneous discrimination training appears to result in bidirectional within-event conditioning involving the S+ and S-.
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Laland, K. N., & Reader, S. M. (1999). Foraging innovation in the guppy. Anim. Behav., 57(2), 331–340.
Abstract: When novel behaviour patterns spread through animal populations, typically one animal will initiate the diffusion. It is not known whether such 'innovators' are particularly creative individuals, individuals exposed to the appropriate environmental contingencies, or individuals in a particular motivational state. We describe three experiments that investigated the factors influencing foraging innovation in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. We exposed small laboratory populations of fish to novel foraging tasks, which involved exploration and problem solving to locate a novel food source. Experiments 1 and 2 found that (1) females were more likely to innovate than males, (2) food-deprived fish were more likely to innovate than nonfood-deprived subjects, and (3) smaller fish were more likely to innovate than larger fish. We suggest that the sex difference may reflect parental investment asymmetries in males and females. Experiment 3 found that past innovators were more likely to innovate than past noninnovators. Collectively, the results suggest that differences in foraging innovation in guppies are best accounted for by differences in motivational state, but, in addition, guppies may vary in their predisposition to innovate. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Gothard, K. M., Erickson, C. A., & Amaral, D. G. (2004). How do rhesus monkeys ( Macaca mulatta) scan faces in a visual paired comparison task? Anim. Cogn., 7(1), 25–36.
Abstract: When novel and familiar faces are viewed simultaneously, humans and monkeys show a preference for looking at the novel face. The facial features attended to in familiar and novel faces, were determined by analyzing the visual exploration patterns, or scanpaths, of four monkeys performing a visual paired comparison task. In this task, the viewer was first familiarized with an image and then it was presented simultaneously with a novel and the familiar image. A looking preference for the novel image indicated that the viewer recognized the familiar image and hence differentiates between the familiar and the novel images. Scanpaths and relative looking preference were compared for four types of images: (1) familiar and novel objects, (2) familiar and novel monkey faces with neutral expressions, (3) familiar and novel inverted monkey faces, and (4) faces from the same monkey with different facial expressions. Looking time was significantly longer for the novel face, whether it was neutral, expressing an emotion, or inverted. Monkeys did not show a preference, or an aversion, for looking at aggressive or affiliative facial expressions. The analysis of scanpaths indicated that the eyes were the most explored facial feature in all faces. When faces expressed emotions such as a fear grimace, then monkeys scanned features of the face, which contributed to the uniqueness of the expression. Inverted facial images were scanned similarly to upright images. Precise measurement of eye movements during the visual paired comparison task, allowed a novel and more quantitative assessment of the perceptual processes involved the spontaneous visual exploration of faces and facial expressions. These studies indicate that non-human primates carry out the visual analysis of complex images such as faces in a characteristic and quantifiable manner.
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Streit,, S., Zeitler-Feicht, M. H., & Dempfle, L. (2008). Automatic feeding systems versus feeding stalls for horses kept in groups: visiting frequency, stress situations and risk of injury. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: When keeping horses in run-out sheds, feeding stalls are usually recommended for individual feeding; which allows equine typical simultaneous eating. However, automatic feeding devices for hay and concentrates are being increasingly used, and these do not allow simultaneous eating. This research aims to compare visiting frequency, stress situations, and the risk of injury, in the area of automatic feeding systems with those at feeding stalls. The studies were carried out at 10 stables with feeding stalls and at 11 with automatic feeding systems for hay and concentrates. These stables were otherwise similar regarding the keeping of the horses and the management of the facilities. Each group consisted of 8 to 21 horses, with 260 horses taking part in total. Every group was observed for 6 sessions, each of 4 hours. These 6 sessions together made 24 hours, a complete day.
Horses in stables with feeding stalls visited the feeding area (waiting area, the station, exit area) 45.5 ± 27.3 times on average in 24 hours, and in stables with automatic feeders for hay and concentrates, 93.1 ± 53.5 times. This difference was significant. Threatening behaviour, without risk of injury or with risk of injury, occurred significantly more frequently in stables with automatic feeders (9.6 ± 12.9 times and 4.2 ± 5.5 times respectively per 24 hours and horse) than in stables with feeding stalls (6.0 ± 10.4 times and 1.5 ± 3.3 times respectively per 24 hours and horse). The management of the stable, however, proved to have its most important influence on the behaviour of the horses. Displacement activities were observed in stables with feeding stalls 0.3 ± 1.0 times per horse and 24 hours and in stables with automatic feeders for hay and concentrate 12.9 ± 23.3 times. Situations that could cause either stress or injuries to the horses occurred in stables with feeding stalls within 24 hours per horse only 3.7 ± 13.1 and 1.3 ± 4.8 times on average respectively. Such situations were to be seen in stables with automatic feeder 17.0 ± 33.4 and 8.6 ± 15.3 times respectively per horse and 24 hours – clearly more often. We may therefore conclude that the more often the feeding area is visited, the more frequently threatening gestures without and with risk of injury occur. The same goes for the number of situations that may result in stress or injuries. Therefore to sum up it can be said that feeding in feedings stalls leads to less risk of stress and injuries compared with feeding by computer controlled systems. On the other hand, computer controlled systems have the advantage of stimulating the horses to move, which is very important for their health. While assessing this study it should be taken into account that there were very big individual differences between the horses. The result of the statistical evaluation was that the management of the stable has a decisive influence on the observed features. Therefore both feeding systems can be recommended, especially as the number of conflicts in the feeding area in all stables was relatively low and no injuries were observed in connection with the feeding. |