scholarly journals Social buffering in horses (Equus caballus): Influence of context, companion familiarity and companion habituation

Author(s):  
Claire Ricci-Bonot ◽  
Teresa Romero ◽  
Christine Nicol ◽  
Daniel Mills

Abstract Social buffering occurs when the presence of one animal attenuates another’s stress response during a stressful event and/or helps the subject to recover more quickly after a stressful event. Inconsistent previous results might reflect previously unrecognised contextual influences, such as the nature of the stimulus presented or social factors. We addressed these issues in a two-part study of horses paired with familiar (16 subjects) or unfamiliar (16 subjects) companions. Each subject performed 4 tests in a counterbalanced order: novel object test (static ball) – alone or with companion; and umbrella opening test – alone or with companion. Social buffering was significantly influenced by the nature of the stimulus presented, but not by companion’s habituation status or familiarity. Importantly, the stimulus used produced differential effects on behavioural and physiological measures of buffering. A companion significantly reduced behavioural response (reactivity) in the novel object test but not in the umbrella test. However, heart rate recovered more quickly for subjects with a companion in the umbrella test but not in the novel object test. We propose that circumstances which permit greater contextual processing may facilitate demonstration of behavioural effects of social buffering, whereas buffering in response to startling events may be manifest only during post-event physiological recovery.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Ricci-Bonot ◽  
Teresa Romero ◽  
Christine Nicol ◽  
Daniel Mills

AbstractSocial buffering occurs when the presence of one animal attenuates another’s stress response during a stressful event and/or helps the subject to recover more quickly after a stressful event. Inconsistent previous results might reflect previously unrecognised contextual influences, such as the nature of the stimulus presented or social factors. We addressed these issues in a two-part study of horses paired with familiar (16 subjects) or unfamiliar (16 subjects) companions. Each subject performed 4 tests in a counterbalanced order: novel object test (static ball)—alone or with companion; and umbrella opening test—alone or with companion. Social buffering was significantly influenced by the nature of the stimulus presented, but not by companion’s habituation status or familiarity. Importantly, the stimulus used produced differential effects on behavioural and physiological measures of buffering. A companion significantly reduced behavioural response (reactivity) in the novel object test but not in the umbrella test. However, heart rate recovered more quickly for subjects with a companion in the umbrella test but not in the novel object test. We propose that circumstances which permit greater contextual processing may facilitate demonstration of behavioural effects of social buffering, whereas buffering in response to startling events may be manifest only during post-event physiological recovery.


PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e2994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Johnson ◽  
Trevor James Hamilton

Modafinil (2-((diphenylmethyl)sulfinyl)acetamide), a selective dopamine and norepinephrine transporter inhibitor, is most commonly prescribed for narcolepsy but has gained recent interest for treating a variety of disorders. Zebrafish (Danio rerio)are becoming a model of choice for pharmacological and behavioural research. To investigate the behavioural effects of modafinil on anxiety, we administered doses of 0, 2, 20, and 200 mg/L for 30 minutes then tested zebrafish in the novel approach test. In this test, the fish was placed into a circular arena with a novel object in the center and motion-tracking software was used to quantify the time the fish spent in the outer area of the arena (thigmotaxis zone), middle third of the arena (transition zone) and center of the arena, as well as total distance traveled, immobility and meandering. Modafinil caused a decrease in time spent in the thigmotaxis zone and increased time spent in the transition zone across all doses. Modafinil did not significantly alter the time spent in the center zone (near the novel object), the distance moved, meandering, or the duration of time spent immobile. We also validated this test as a measure of anxiety with the administration of ethanol (1%) which decreased time spent in the thigmotaxis zone and increased time spent in the transition zone. These results suggest that modafinil decreases anxiety-like behaviour in zebrafish.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e10566
Author(s):  
Rachel Dean ◽  
Nicole Hurst Radke ◽  
Nirudika Velupillai ◽  
Brian C. Franczak ◽  
Trevor J. Hamilton

Aquatic organisms in pharmacology and toxicology research are often exposed to compounds in isolation prior to physiological or behavioural testing. Recent evidence suggests that the presence of conspecifics during a stressful event can modulate behavioural outcomes (called ‘social buffering’) when testing occurs within the same context. It is unknown, however, whether the social environment during exposure interacts with the efficacy of anxiety-altering substances when subsequently tested in the absence of conspecifics. In this study, zebrafish were individually exposed to habitat water or ethanol (1.0% vol/vol) while untreated conspecifics were visually present or absent during dosing. Using the novel object approach test, a validated test of boldness and anxiety-like behaviour, we observed significantly greater effects of ethanol in isolated fish, compared to fish with a view of conspecifics during dosing. These results were not explained by altered locomotion during exposure, which might otherwise increase drug uptake. This highlights the need to consider the social environment during exposure when conducting and interpreting behavioural research involving drug or toxicant exposure.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-92
Author(s):  
Susan Jones

This article explores the diversity of British literary responses to Diaghilev's project, emphasising the way in which the subject matter and methodologies of Diaghilev's modernism were sometimes unexpectedly echoed in expressions of contemporary British writing. These discussions emerge both in writing about Diaghilev's work, and, more discretely, when references to the Russian Ballet find their way into the creative writing of the period, serving to anchor the texts in a particular cultural milieu or to suggest contemporary aesthetic problems in the domain of literary aesthetics developing in the period. Figures from disparate fields, including literature, music and the visual arts, brought to their criticism of the Ballets Russes their individual perspectives on its aesthetics, helping to consolidate the sense of its importance in contributing to the inter-disciplinary flavour of modernism across the arts. In the field of literature, not only did British writers evaluate the Ballets Russes in terms of their own poetics, their relationship to experimentation in the novel and in drama, they developed an increasing sense of the company's place in dance history, its choreographic innovations offering material for wider discussions, opening up the potential for literary modernism's interest in impersonality and in the ‘unsayable’, discussions of the body, primitivism and gender.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-319
Author(s):  
Aluaș Alina

"The Theatrical Potential in David Foenkinos’ Work. Analysis of the Novel, the Scenario and the Film “La Délicatesse”. Our interest, especially when it comes to the subject of literature, is to show the manner in which the text processing done by the author (script writer/director) brings to light the guidelines of the novelistic text’s semantics, which under careful analysis reveals a kind of personal myth of the novelist. The skewed, syncopated, interrupted writing which disrupts the chronotope serves the needs of the script as well as the director’s selective vision. Unconsciously, the novel seems to follow the structure of the theatrical model. These traits can also be found in the cinematographic structure of the film. Keywords: love, eroticism, delicacy, theatricality, scenario, film. "


Author(s):  
Stephanie L. Derrick

The emphasis of this monograph has been on the historical, cultural, religious, and social factors that shaped C. S. Lewis and his reception. Until recently those who have considered the subject have attributed his popularity to virtues of the man himself. The fact that Lewis, in effect, was an image, a mitigated commercial product, a platform, has largely been overlooked. A critical component of Lewis’s reception is the opportunities that education provided the middle classes for social mobility in the twentieth century and the social divisions and anxieties attendant upon those evolutions. Of equal importance is the timing of Lewis’s life and publications with print history and the rise of mass media and entertainment. Lewis’s platform as a contrarian Christian resisting modernity and his reactions to the intellectual, social, and religious changes of his day made the critical difference to his transatlantic receptions.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1383
Author(s):  
Megan Elizabeth Corgan ◽  
Temple Grandin ◽  
Sarah Matlock

It is dangerous for both riders and horses when a horse suddenly startles. Sometimes horses do this in familiar environments because familiar objects may look different when rotated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether horses that had been habituated to a complex object (children’s playset) would react to the object as novel when rotated 90 degrees. Twenty young horses were led past the playset 15 times by a handler. Next, the rotated group was led past the rotated playset 15 times. Each time the horse was led by the object was a pass. The behavioral responses observed and analyzed were ears focused on the object, nostril flares, neck raising, snort, avoid by stopping, avoid by moving feet sideways, and avoid by flight. An increasing reactivity scale was used to quantify behavioral responses. A two-sample t-test was performed on the reactivity scores comparing the first pass by the novel object to the first pass by the rotated object. The horses in the rotated group reacted to the rotated orientation similarly to the first exposure (p = 0.001, α < 0.05). Being aware of potential reactions to changes in previously familiar environments can help keep the handler safer.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chase Pielak

In George Eliot'sDanielDeronda, animal vitality figures prominently in shaping the human shell, to use an opening animal metaphor. Approaching the significance of the animal leads to a reading of Gwendolen Grandcourt's character as a responsible creature. Gwendolen is Eliot's heroine, one half of the pair of protagonists around whom the novel revolves. Eliot's fantastic character takes shape in three movements, each punctuated by its own animal metaphor: Gwendolen morphs from Lamia to mastered-animal to white doe. Animal imagery appears at the edge of the human, the point at which humanity gains and loses subjectivity, and Gwendolen's novel is fundamentally one of finding her place in the world, her singularity, her responsibility. Images of animals stand in the linguistic gaps – in the places words fail – to figure the subject.1Animals appear at the end of the ability of language to mean. Nevertheless, this analysis is not intended to encompass the complex range of animal representations in George's Eliot's oeuvre, or even to catalog every example inDaniel Deronda. Instead, it suggests the possibility of using animal metaphor as a map for reading a Victorian heroine.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. OWENS ◽  
Justine M. THACKER ◽  
Susan A. GRAHAM

AbstractSpeech disfluencies can guide the ways in which listeners interpret spoken language. Here, we examined whether three-year-olds, five-year-olds, and adults use filled pauses to anticipate that a speaker is likely to refer to a novel object. Across three experiments, participants were presented with pairs of novel and familiar objects and heard a speaker refer to one of the objects using a fluent (“Look at the ball/lep!”) or disfluent (“Look at thee uh ball/lep!”) expression. The salience of the speaker's unfamiliarity with the novel referents, and the way in which the speaker referred to the novel referents (i.e., a noun vs. a description) varied across experiments. Three- and five-year-olds successfully identified familiar and novel targets, but only adults’ looking patterns reflected increased looks to novel objects in the presence of a disfluency. Together, these findings demonstrate that adults, but not young children, use filled pauses to anticipate reference to novel objects.


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