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Facial Indicators of Positive Emotions in Rats by Finlayson, Kathryn; Lampe, Jessica Frances; Hintze, Sara; Würbel, Hanno; Melotti, Luca; Hillmann, Edna is a Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Facial Indicators of Positive Emotions in Rats about?

Until recently, research in animal welfare science has mainly focused on negative experiences like pain and suffering, often neglecting the importance of assessing and promoting positive experiences. In rodents, specific facial expressions have been found to occur in situations thought to induce negatively valenced emotional states (e.g., pain, aggression and fear), but none have yet been identified for positive states. Thus, this study aimed to investigate if facial expressions indicative of positive emotional state are exhibited in rats. Adolescent male Lister Hooded rats (Rattus norvegicus, N = 15) were individually subjected to a Positive and a mildly aversive Contrast Treatment over two consecutive days in order to induce contrasting emotional states and to detect differences in facial expression. The Positive Treatment consisted of playful manual tickling administered by the experimenter, while the Contrast Treatment consisted of exposure to a novel test room with intermittent bursts of white noise. The number of positive ultrasonic vocalisations was greater in the Positive Treatment compared to the Contrast Treatment, indicating the experience of differentially valenced stat

Who reads Facial Indicators of Positive Emotions in Rats?

Author

Finlayson, Kathryn; Lampe, Jessica Frances; Hintze, Sara; Würbel, Hanno; Melotti, Luca; Hillmann, Edna

Publisher

Public Library of Science; San Francisco CA: Public Library of Science; Publons; ScienceOpen; Public Library of Science (PLoS) (ISSN 1932-6203)

Published

2016

Language

EN

Field

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)