scholarly journals Judgement bias in goats (Capra hircus): investigating the effects of human grooming

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Baciadonna ◽  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Alan G. McElligott
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Direct Interaction ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Capra Hircus ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Bias Effect ◽  
Judgement Bias

Animal emotional states can be investigated by evaluating their impact on cognitive processes. In this study, we used a judgement bias paradigm to determine if short-term positive human-animal interaction (grooming) induced a positive affective state in goats. We tested two groups of goats and trained them to discriminate between a rewarded and a non-rewarded location over nine training days. During training, the experimental group (n= 9) was gently groomed by brushing their heads and backs for five min over 11 days (nine training days, plus two testing days, total time 55 min). During training, the control group (n= 10) did not experience any direct interaction with the experimenter, but was kept unconstrained next to him for the same period of time. After successful completion of the training, the responses (latency time) of the two groups to reach ambiguous locations situated between the two reference locations (i.e., rewarded/non-rewarded) were compared over two days of testing. There was not a positive bias effect after the animals had been groomed. In a second experiment, 10 goats were tested to investigate whether grooming induced changes in physiological activation (i.e., heart rate and heart rate variability). Heart rate increased when goats were groomed compared to the baseline condition, when the same goats did not receive any contact with the experimenter. Also, subjects did not move away from the experimenter, suggesting that the grooming was positively accepted. The very good care and the regular positive contacts that goats received from humans at the study site could potentially account for the results obtained. Good husbandry outcomes are influenced by animals’ perception of the events and this is based on current circumstances, past experiences and individual variables. Taking into account animals’ individual characteristics and identifying effective strategies to induce positive emotions could increase the understanding and reliability of using cognitive biases paradigms to investigate and promote animal welfare.

scholarly journals Optimising ‘Positive’ Findings from Judgement Bias Tests: A Consideration of Inherent Confounding Factors Associated with Test Design and Biology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Whittaker ◽  
Timothy Barker
Keyword(s):  
Life Experience ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Test Design ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Early Life Experience ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
State Determination ◽  
Reproductive Cycles ◽  
Test Outcomes

The assessment of positive emotional states in animals has been advanced considerably through the use of judgement bias testing. JBT methods have now been reported in a range of species. Generally, these tests show good validity as ascertained through use of corroborating methods of affective state determination. However, published reports of judgement bias task findings can be counter-intuitive and show high inter-individual variability. It is proposed that these outcomes may arise as a result of inherent inter- and intra-individual differences as a result of biology. This review discusses the potential impact of sex and reproductive cycles, social status, genetics, early life experience and personality on judgement bias test outcomes. We also discuss some aspects of test design that may interact with these factors to further confound test interpretation. There is some evidence that a range of biological factors affect judgement bias test outcomes, but in many cases this evidence is limited and needs further characterisation to reproduce the findings and confirm directions of effect. It is our proposition that researchers should consider dedicated study on these factors and their impact on judgement biasing. This is needed to confirm effect and investigate mechanisms. Alternately, consideration and reporting of these factors in JBT studies through incorporation in statistical analyses will provide much needed additional data on their impact. These actions will enhance the validity and practical applicability of the JBT for welfare assessment.

scholarly journals Judgement Bias During Pregnancy In Domestic Pigs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily V Bushby ◽  
Sheena Cotter ◽  
Anna Wilkinson ◽  
Mary Friel ◽  
Lisa Collins
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Late Pregnancy ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Judgment Bias ◽  
Domestic Pigs ◽  
Judgement Bias

In humans and rats, changes in mood and affect are known to occur during pregnancy, however it is unknown how gestation may influence mood in other non-human mammals. This study assessed changes in pigs’ judgment bias as a measure of affective state throughout gestation. Pigs were trained to complete a spatial judgement bias task with reference to positive and negative locations. We tested gilts before mating, and during early and late pregnancy, by assessing their responses to ambiguous probe locations. Pigs responded increasingly negatively to ambiguous probes as pregnancy progressed and there were consistent inter-individual differences in baseline optimism. This suggests that the pigs’ affective state may be altered during gestation, although as a non-pregnant control group was not tested, an effect of learning cannot be ruled out. These results suggest that judgement bias is altered during pregnancy in domestic pigs, consequently raising novel welfare considerations for captive multiparous species.

scholarly journals Positive psychology interventions in in-patients with depression: influences of comorbidity and subjective evaluation of the training programme

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Stemmler ◽  
Regina Staehle ◽  
Tina Heinemann ◽  
Matthias Bender ◽  
Juergen Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Outcome ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Beck Depression Inventory ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Treatment As Usual ◽  
Positive Psychology Interventions

Background Studies on positive psychology interventions (PPIs) have frequently demonstrated benefits for healthy participants and patients. However, effect sizes are moderate, and underlying inter-individual differences in responses were rarely investigated. Aims We investigated whether severity of depression and subjective evaluation of PPIs are relevant sources of variance in this respect. Method A 4-week group PPI programme (one 45-min session per week) was offered to 38 in-patients with depression. The control group (n = 38) was carefully matched and received treatment as usual. In the PPI group, emotional states were recorded before and after each session (responsiveness). Beck Depression Inventory-II scores at hospital admission and discharge were used to evaluate clinical effectiveness. The number of comorbidities (as an indicator of severity of disease) and patients’ evaluations of the PPI sessions were used as additional independent factors for overall treatment outcome. Results The PPI induced a highly significant improvement in positive emotional state and decrease in negative emotional state, indicating responsiveness. Moreover, positive affectivity increased from week to week only in patients with a low number of comorbidities (indicating effectiveness). With respect to overall treatment outcome (Beck Depression Inventory-II scores), positive attitude toward the PPI resulted in the largest improvement. Conclusions The results partly explain the variance in the effectiveness of PPIs. Moreover, they support the idea of personalised psychotherapy, and may inform discussion on whether patients with depression should be included in PPIs. However, additional individual characteristics should increase knowledge about individual predictors for effectiveness.

scholarly journals Impact of canine epilepsy on judgement and attention biases

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Hobbs ◽  
Tsz Hong Law ◽  
Holger A. Volk ◽  
Chantal Younis ◽  
Rachel A. Casey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Spatial Discrimination ◽  
Idiopathic Epilepsy ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Recurrent Seizure ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Animal Welfare Science

Abstract Idiopathic epilepsy (IE) is the most common chronic neurological condition in dogs, characterised by recurrent seizure activity and associated with negative behavioural and cognitive changes. We hypothesised that IE would negatively impact putative affective state, with dogs with IE exhibiting a more pessimistic judgement bias and more negative attention bias than controls. Dogs were tested in a previously-validated spatial judgement bias task, and a novel auditory attention bias task testing attention to sounds with different valence or salience (neutral, novel pre-habituated, threatening). Sixty-eight dogs (IE = 33, Control = 35) were tested, of which n = 37 acquired the spatial discrimination and responses to judgement bias probes were tested (IE = 19, Control = 18), and n = 36 were tested for responses to sounds (IE = 20, Control = 16). Study groups did not significantly differ by age, sex, breed or neuter-status (p > 0.05). Main effects of study group were not significant in judgement bias (F1,102 = 0.20, p = 0.658) or attention bias tasks (F3,102 = 1.64, p = 0.184). In contrast with our hypotheses, there was no evidence that IE altered cognitive biases in this study population; however, dogs with IE were significantly more likely to be unable to learn the spatial discrimination task (p = 0.019), which may reflect IE-related cognitive deficits. Developing methods to test affective state without excluding cognitively impaired individuals is a future challenge for animal welfare science.

Effect of Emotions in a Lexical Decision Task

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Maire ◽  
Renaud Brochard ◽  
Jean-Luc Kop ◽  
Vivien Dioux ◽  
Daniel Zagar
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Sequence Effect ◽  
Emotion Induction ◽  
Before And After

Abstract. This study measured the effect of emotional states on lexical decision task performance and investigated which underlying components (physiological, attentional orienting, executive, lexical, and/or strategic) are affected. We did this by assessing participants’ performance on a lexical decision task, which they completed before and after an emotional state induction task. The sequence effect, usually produced when participants repeat a task, was significantly smaller in participants who had received one of the three emotion inductions (happiness, sadness, embarrassment) than in control group participants (neutral induction). Using the diffusion model ( Ratcliff, 1978 ) to resolve the data into meaningful parameters that correspond to specific psychological components, we found that emotion induction only modulated the parameter reflecting the physiological and/or attentional orienting components, whereas the executive, lexical, and strategic components were not altered. These results suggest that emotional states have an impact on the low-level mechanisms underlying mental chronometric tasks.

The Effects of a Caffeine Placebo and Experimenter Expectation on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Well-Being, and Cognitive Performance

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Walach ◽  
Stefan Schmidt ◽  
Yvonne-Michelle Bihr ◽  
Susanne Wiesch
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Being There ◽  
To Receive

We studied the effect of experimenter expectations and different instructions in a balanced placebo design. 157 subjects were randomized into a 2 × 4 factorial design. Two experimenters were led to expect placebos either to produce physiological effects or not (pro- vs. antiplacebo). All subjects except a control group received a caffeine placebo. They were either made to expect coffee, no coffee, or were in a double-blind condition. Dependent measures were blood pressure, heart rate, well-being, and a cognitive task. There was one main effect on the instruction factor (p = 0.03) with the group “told no caffeine” reporting significantly better well-being. There was one main effect on the experimenter factor with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” having higher systolic blood pressure (p = 0.008). There was one interaction with subjects instructed by experimenter “proplacebo” to receive coffee doing worse in the cognitive task than the rest. Subjects instructed by experimenter “antiplacebo” were significantly less likely to believe the experimental instruction, and that mostly if they had been instructed to receive coffee. Contrary to the literature we could not show an effect of instruction, but there was an effect of experimenters. It is likely, however, that these experimenter effects were not due to experimental manipulations, but to the difference in personalities.

Emotional Reactivity to Visual Content as Revealed by ERP Component Clustering

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Wyczesany ◽  
Szczepan J. Grzybowski ◽  
Jan Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In the study, the neural basis of emotional reactivity was investigated. Reactivity was operationalized as the impact of emotional pictures on the self-reported ongoing affective state. It was used to divide the subjects into high- and low-responders groups. Independent sources of brain activity were identified, localized with the DIPFIT method, and clustered across subjects to analyse the visual evoked potentials to affective pictures. Four of the identified clusters revealed effects of reactivity. The earliest two started about 120 ms from the stimulus onset and were located in the occipital lobe and the right temporoparietal junction. Another two with a latency of 200 ms were found in the orbitofrontal and the right dorsolateral cortices. Additionally, differences in pre-stimulus alpha level over the visual cortex were observed between the groups. The attentional modulation of perceptual processes is proposed as an early source of emotional reactivity, which forms an automatic mechanism of affective control. The role of top-down processes in affective appraisal and, finally, the experience of ongoing emotional states is also discussed.

The Predictive Role of Biochemical Plasma Factors in Patients with Severe Traumatic Brain Injuries

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1754-1757
Author(s):  
Marius Toma Papacocea ◽  
Ioana Anca Badarau ◽  
Mugurel Radoi ◽  
Ioana Raluca Papacocea
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Blood Cell ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
Hematological Parameters ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injuries ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Control Group

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) represent a high impact public health problem due to a high rate of death , long term disability and occurrence especially in young adults. Despite several promising animal studies, several parameters were proposed as biological markers and were assessed for this aim. Our study proposes the study of the early biochemical changes in association to hematological parameters for severe TBI patients prognosis. 43 patients with acute TBI were included in study based on clinical, laboratory and imagistic findings. The severity of the TBI was established by Glasgow Coma Scale GCS 3-8. In all patients were evaluated hematologic parameters (Red blood cell count - RBC, Hematocrit, blood Hemoglobin, White blood cell - WBC, Platelet count and biochemical parameters (glucose, urea, creatinine, electrolytes). Outcome was expressed as Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), between 1-5. Values were compared to control group -15 cases. Significant early differences in body temperature, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure were observed in TBI group versus control (p[0.05). After correlation, laboratory findings significantly associated to severe outcome - GOS = 1, 2 - (p[0.05) were plasma Na decrease and significant glucose increase. An early increase of temperature and decrease of Na may predict a severe outcome in patients with acute TBI; association with shifts in heart rate and blood pressure, imposes aggressive treatment measures.

Relationship between Invasive and Non-Invasive Hemodynamic Measures in Experimental Pulmonary Hypertension

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Vicente Benavides-Córdoba ◽  
Mauricio Palacios Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Ejection Fraction ◽  
Right Ventricle ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Systolic Pressure ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Pearson Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Non Invasive

Introduction: Animal models have been used to understand the pathophysiology of pulmonary hypertension, to describe the mechanisms of action and to evaluate promising active ingredients. The monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension model is the most used animal model. In this model, invasive and non-invasive hemodynamic variables that resemble human measurements have been used. Aim: To define if non-invasive variables can predict hemodynamic measures in the monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension model. Materials and Methods: Twenty 6-week old male Wistar rats weighing between 250-300g from the bioterium of the Universidad del Valle (Cali - Colombia) were used in order to establish that the relationships between invasive and non-invasive variables are sustained in different conditions (healthy, hypertrophy and treated). The animals were organized into three groups, a control group who was given 0.9% saline solution subcutaneously (sc), a group with pulmonary hypertension induced with a single subcutaneous dose of Monocrotaline 30 mg/kg, and a group with pulmonary hypertension with 30 mg/kg of monocrotaline treated with Sildenafil. Right ventricle ejection fraction, heart rate, right ventricle systolic pressure and the extent of hypertrophy were measured. The functional relation between any two variables was evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: It was found that all correlations were statistically significant (p <0.01). The strongest correlation was the inverse one between the RVEF and the Fulton index (r = -0.82). The Fulton index also had a strong correlation with the RVSP (r = 0.79). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the RVEF and the RVSP was -0.81, meaning that the higher the systolic pressure in the right ventricle, the lower the ejection fraction value. Heart rate was significantly correlated to the other three variables studied, although with relatively low correlation. Conclusion: The correlations obtained in this study indicate that the parameters evaluated in the research related to experimental pulmonary hypertension correlate adequately and that the measurements that are currently made are adequate and consistent with each other, that is, they have good predictive capacity.

scholarly journals Watching others in a positive state does not induce optimism bias in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), but leads to behaviour indicative of competition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. C. Adriaense ◽  
V. Šlipogor ◽  
S. Hintze ◽  
L. Marshall ◽  
C. Lamm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Contagion ◽  
Negative Control ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Common Marmosets ◽  
Optimism Bias ◽  
Negative State ◽  
Group Life ◽  
Judgement Bias ◽  
Negative Condition ◽  
Positive State

AbstractEmotional contagion is suggested to facilitate group life by enhancing synchronized responses to the environment. Cooperative breeders are an example of a social system that requires such intricate coordination between individuals. Therefore, we studied emotional contagion in common marmosets by means of a judgement bias test. Demonstrators were exposed to an emotion manipulation (i.e., positive, negative, control), and observers perceived only the demonstrator’s behaviour. We predicted that the positive or negative states of the demonstrator would induce matching states in the observer, indicating emotional contagion. All subjects’ emotional states were assessed through behaviour and cognition, the latter by means of a judgement bias test. Behavioural results showed a successful emotion manipulation of demonstrators, with manipulation-congruent expressions (i.e., positive calls in the positive condition, and negative calls and pilo-erect tail in the negative condition). Observers showed no manipulation-congruent expressions, but showed more scratching and arousal after the positive manipulation. Concerning the judgement bias test, we predicted that subjects in a positive state should increase their response to ambiguous cues (i.e., optimism bias), and subjects in a negative state should decrease their response (i.e., pessimism bias). This prediction was not supported as neither demonstrators nor observers showed such bias in either manipulation. Yet, demonstrators showed an increased response to the near-positive cue, and additional analyses showed unexpected responses to the reference cues, as well as a researcher identity effect. We discuss all results combined, including recently raised validation concerns of the judgement bias test, and inherent challenges to empirically studying emotional contagion.

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