A Look at the Emotional Lives of Animals

Temple GrandinDepartment of Animal Sciences

Colorado State University

Ian Duncan has discussed feelings in animals

Feelings motivate behavior

Neuroscience studies provide data that shows that animal emotions (feelings) have similarities to human emotions

Animals Have Emotions

Prozac works on dogs

Brain systems where emotions originate are located in subcortical brain areas that are similar in all mammals

Neurotransmitters same

Core Emotions

FEAR – Most primitive emotion for survival

RAGE - Anger

PANIC – Separation anxiety

SEEKING – Approach novelty

ADDITIONAL EMOTIONS – Lust, caring, play

Jaak Panksepp,

Affective Neuroscience, 1998

Amygdala is the fear center in the subcortex

Electrical stimulation elicits behavioral signs of fear (Davis, 1992)

In cats and rats, stimulation increases pituitary adrenal activity and raises stress hormones (Redgate and Faringer, 1973; Setckleiv et al., 1961)

Destroying the AmygdalaHas a Taming Effect

Monkeys explore everything in the room – No fear (Kluver and Bucy, 1937)

Rats no longer fear cats

Taming effect on wild rats (Kremble et al., 1984)

Teaching Antelopes to Cooperate with Blood Sampling

Handling stress is short-term fear stress

Long-term chronic fear stress may be occurring if an animal does not have the opportunity to perform certain hard wired behaviors that may be motivated by fear. Many of these behaviors help protect animals from predators

Hens are highly motivated to lay their eggs in a secluded nest box (Cooper and Appleby,

1996; Appleby and McFee, 1986)

Photo by Carol Burbridge

FEAR MOTIVATED

??Probably Yes

Stereotypic digging in gerbils was almost stopped by providing a place to hide instead of providing sand to dig in

(Wiedenmayer, 1974)

The Gerbil was Motivated to Continue Digging

Futile attempt to create a hiding place

Sand in a shallow arena where burrowing was impossible was not an effective environmental enrichment

A pre-made artificial burrow was effective

Anti-predator behaviors that are required for survival are likely to be motivated by fear. Gerbils that fail to

hide in the wild get eaten by predators

Aggression and rage occur when the

hypothalamus is electrically stimulated

(Hess, 1957; Bard, 1928)

Scientists initially called the cat’s reaction

“sham rage”

I was taught in the 1960’s that the rage

was not real

Evidence that Emotion From Electrical Brain Stimulation was Real

Stimulation produced realistic behaviors

Cats would attack anesthetized rats and stuffed rats

Did not attack Styrofoam blocks (Levison and Flynn, 1965)

Fear and rage produced by two separate brain areas (Ursin and Kaada, 1960)

Panic (separation anxiety) and fear were genetically separated in a quail

breeding experiment

High fear – High panic (natural bird)

High Fear – Low panic

Low fear – High panic

Low fear – Low panic

(Mills and Faure, 1990, 1991)

Behavioral Measurements

Fear measured with tonic immobility test

Separation Anxiety (called Social Reinstate

by Mills and Faure)Measured with a moving treadmill

Direction of carpet movement

Animals need companions to avoid separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety causes many behavioral problems in dogs.

Seeking is the drive to explore new things

Monkeys that had no fear due to a destroyed amygdala examined every object in a strange room

(Kluver and Bucy, 1939)

Animals are motivated to approach and investigate new things

Pigs are highly motivated to root and manipulate straw or soft objects (Grandin, 1989; Van derWeerd et al., 2009;

Studnitz et al., 2007)

Providing small amounts of straw prevents stereotypic bar

biting (Fraser, 1975)

Pigs prefer new objects to manipulate

Grandin, 1989

Paradox of NoveltyIt is both scary and attractive

Causes fear when suddenly introduced

Attractive when animals voluntarily approach

The nucleus accumbens contains circuits to encourage seeking and circuits that elicit fearful responses (Reynolds and

Berridge et al., 2009; Berridge, 2008)

It can go into either a seek or fear mode

Explain curiously afraid behavior in cattle

Environmental conditions determine amount of area in the nucleus accumbens that motivate seek

Rats living in an environment blasted with bright light and rock music – A smaller

area of nucleus accumbens is devoted to seeking (appetative behavior)

Appetative (seeking) behavior in rats.Measured by observing behavior of the

rat – after micro injections of drugs that affect neurotransmitters

Positive licking of the lips

Positive increase in eating and food intake

Distress vocalizations, escape attempts, treading

Stimulate mid-section of nucleus accumbens gets behavioral mixtures

“Liking” and “Wanting” two different brain mechanismsLiking is opiod system measured by licking

Wanting is a dopamine system measured by food intake

Berridge et al., 2009

Micro-Injections Used for Mapping the Seeking Circuits

Opiod agonist DAMGO increases “liking”

Dopamine agonist amphetamine increases “wanting”

Mapped anatomically distinct for “wanting” and “liking” and areas with mixed “wanting” and “liking”

“Wanting” is in the dopamine system.“Wanting” brain systems are more widely

distributed in the brain than “liking” systems (Berridge et al., 2009)

Pathological gambling

Eat a big chocolate sundae and feel sick. You wanted it but did not really like it.

Think about the emotional system driving a behavior when designing

environment enrichment

Photo by Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

Dogs NeedBoth dog and human companions to prevent PANIC

Activities to turn on SEEKING

Horses Need

Careful habituation to new things to prevent FEAR

Grazing or hay to satisfy SEEKING

Companions and social interaction

The old Neuroscience research really shows that animals have emotions

As more old journals are scanned, more and more of this research is becoming available

www.grandin.com