Discipline: Neurobiology

Animaux d’élevage : prendre en compte leurs ressentis

Rachel Degrande, Juliette Cognié, Véronique Deiss, Angélique Favreau-Peigné, Valérie Fillon, Plotine Jardat, Christine Leterrier, Frédéric Lévy, Odile Petit, Freddie-Jeanne Richard

Published in 2024

Article exploring the evolution of the concept of animal welfare and the scientific basis for consideration of animals' cognitive and emotional capacities.

Document types: Technical Paper

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, training, Consciousness, Welfare indicators, Memory, Metacognition, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress, Behavioural disorders

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Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain

Lecorps B, Weary D.

Published in 2024

Synthesis exploring the Bayesian hypothesis that the brain is a predictive machine that interprets sensory data through expectations based on past experiences that influence affective responses. Applied to animals, this theory could improve our understanding of their affective states and reveal the impact of deficits in an animal's predictive processing on its welfare.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: All animals

Keywords: Cognitive processes, Welfare indicators,Learning, training

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The complex affective and cognitive capacities of rats

Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal

Published in 2024

Article demonstrating that rats are not only able to feel fear, pain and anxiety, but are also capable of empathy. They show prosocial behaviors, helping fellow rats in distress, suggesting that they are capable of imagining the needs of others.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Rodents

Keywords:Learning, training, Consciousness, Memory, Cognitive processes

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Feeding predictability as a cognitive enrichment protects brain function and physiological status in rainbow trout: a multidisciplinary approach to assess fish welfare

A. Kleiber, J. Roy, V. Brunet, E. Baranek, J.M. Le-Calvez, T. Kerneis, A. Batard, S. Calvez, L. Pineau, S. Milla, V. Guesdon, L. Calandreau, V. Colson

Published in 2024

Scientific article showing that the feeding predictability contributes to cognitive enrichment, offering a way to improve the welfare and immune status of rainbow trout.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Aggression, Aggressiveness, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Stress

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Why do dogs wag their tails?

Silvia Leonetti, Giulia Cimarelli, Taylor A. Hersh, Andrea Ravignani

Published in 2024

Scientific review of the mechanism, ontogeny, function and evolution of tail-wagging behavior in dogs.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Evolutionary processes, Human-animal relationships

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Volitional activation of remote place representations with a hippocampal brain-machine interface

Chongxi Lai, Shinsuke Tanaka, Timothy D. Harris, Albert K. Lee

Published in 2023

Scientific article on the development of a brain-machine interface to study rats' abilities to voluntarily navigate and direct objects in a virtual reality arena, solely by activating and sustaining appropriate hippocampal representations of remote locations.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Rodents

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Learning, training, Consciousness, Brain integration, Living environment, Modelling

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Effects of Music Therapy on Neuroplasticity, Welfare, and Performance of Piglets Exposed to Music Therapy in the Intra- and Extra-Uterine Phases

Isabella Cristina de Castro Lippi, Fabiana Ribeiro Caldara, Ibiara Correia de Lima Almeida-Paz, Henrique Biasotto Morais, Agnês Markiy Odakura, Elisabete Castelon Konkiewitz, Welber Sanches Ferreira, Thiago Leite Fraga, Maria Fernanda de Castro Burbarelli, Gisele Aparecida Felix, Rodrigo Garófallo Garcia, Luan Sousa dos Santos

Published in 2022

Scientific paper showing that intra- and extra-uterine exposure of piglets to music maintains high levels of BDNF, which contributes to neuroplasticity, between birth and weaning and is associated with higher weaning weights.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Porcines

Keywords:Enrichment, Brain integration, Memory, Prenatal issues

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Why do animals want what they like?

Jair E. Garcia, Adrian G. Dyer

Published in 2022

Commentary on an article demonstrating the conservation of dopamine-related neural circuits and mechanisms involving desire and reward  in animals, from bees to humans.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories:Insects

Keywords:Brain integration, Cognitive processes, Evolutionary processes

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The Neurobiology of Behavior and Its Applicability for Animal Welfare: A Review

Genaro A. Coria-Avila, James G. Pfaus, Agustín Orihuela, Adriana Domínguez-Oliva, Nancy José-Pérez, Laura Astrid Hernández, Daniel Mota-Rojas

Published in 2022

Scientific review of the neurobiological causes of behaviours, emotions, memory and learning in animals, and their links to animal welfare

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: All animals

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Learning, training, Brain integration, Memory, Cognitive processes

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Facial expressions of emotion states and their neuronal correlates in mice

Nejc Dolensek, Daniel A. Gehrlach, Alexandra S. Klein, Nadine Gogolla

Published in 2020

Preview: “The investigation of emotions is hindered by a lack of rapid and precise readouts of emotion states in model organisms. Dolensek et al. identified facial expressions as innate and sensitive reflections of the internal emotion state in mice.”

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Rodents

Keywords: Welfare indicators

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