Processus d'évaluation et réponses émotionnelles chez les ovins: prévisibilité, contrôlabilité, correspondance aux attentes et contexte social

Thèse avec cinq articles en anglais Diplôme : Dr. d'UniversitéThe assessment of farm-animal welfare requires a good understanding of the animals' affective experience, including their emotions. Appraisal theories developed in cognitive psychology provide a conceptual framework to study emotions in animals. It considers emotions to be triggered by a cognitive process where the situation is evaluated according to a limited number of elementary criteria. The emotional experience of an animal can be infered from the likely evaluation it makes in a situation and its subsequent behavioural and physiological responses. It is first necessary to know what criteria animals perceive and whether they influence the emotional response. Knowing the criteria used by a species enables inference to the emotions that individuals could experience. An experimental approach has been developed in lambs to identify the range of elementary criteria used by animals and the specific responses triggered by these criteria. We have shown that lambs evaluate an event to which they are exposed according to the event's predictability, its discrepancy from expectations, the ability of the individual to exert control over it and the social context in which it occurs. This evaluation influences the emotional responses of lambs (behavioural and cardiac). Our characterisation of the criteria used by lambs indicates the kind of emotions they could experience. According to our results, lambs could experience happiness in addition to negative emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, despair, rage and boredom. Further studies to consider combinations of criteria would strengthen these results. Implications of cognitive abilities regarding to animal welfare are discussed.Le bien-être animal implique l'état physique mais également l'état mental. Les théories de l'évaluation en psychologie cognitive offrent un cadre conceptuel pour étudier le vécu émotionnel de l'animal qui est inféré de l'évaluation qu'il fait de la situation à laquelle il est confronté, de ses réponses comportementales et physiologiques. Les critères en fonction desquels les animaux évaluent leur environnement doivent être connus afin d'en déduire les émotions qu'ils pourraient ressentir. Nous avons montré que les ovins évaluent un événement en fonction : 1) de sa prévisibilité ; 2) de son adéquation avec les attentes préalablement construites ; 3) de la possibilité qu'ils ont de le contrôler ; 4) du contexte social (dominance/subordination) dans lequel il se produit. Ainsi, les ovins pourraient ressentir des émotions négatives telles que la peur, la colère, ou l'ennui, et des émotions positives comme le plaisi

Processus d'évaluation et réponses émotionnelles chez les ovins (prévisibilité, contrôlabilité, correspondance aux attentes et contexte social)

Le bien-être animal implique l'état physique mais également l'état mental. Les théories de l'évaluation en psychologie cognitive offrent un cadre conceptuel pour étudier le vécu émotionnel de l'animal qui est inféré de l'évaluation qu'il fait de la situation à laquelle il est confronté, de ses réponses comportementales et physiologiques. Les critères en fonction desquels les animaux évaluent leur environnement doivent être connus afin d'en déduire les émotions qu'ils pourraient ressentir. Nous avons montré que les ovins évaluent un événement en fonction : 1) de sa prévisibilité ; 2) de son adéquation avec les attentes préalablement construites ; 3) de la possibilité qu'ils ont de le contrôler ; 4) du contexte social (dominance/subordination) dans lequel il se produit. Ainsi, les ovins pourraient ressentir des émotions négatives telles que la peur, la colère, ou l'ennui, et des émotions positives comme le plaisirCLERMONT FD-BCIU Sci.et Tech. (630142101) / SudocSudocFranceF

An ethological perspective of the relations between sociality and emotions in animals

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An ethological perspective of the relations between sociality and emotions in animals

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Welfare, stress, emotions

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Cognitive sciences to relate ear postures to emotions in sheep

International audienceEmotions are now largely recognised as a core element in animal welfare issues. However, convenient indicators to reliably infer emotions are still needed. As such, the availability of behavioural postures analogous to facial expressions in humans would be extremely valuable for animal studies of emotions. The purpose of this paper is to find out stable expressive postures in sheep and to relate these expressive postures with specific emotional contexts. In an initial experiment, we identified discrete ear postures from a comprehensive approach which integrates all theoretically distinguishable ear postures. Four main ear postures were identified: horizontal ears (P posture); ears risen up (R posture); ears pointed backward (B posture); and asymmetric posture (A posture). In a second experiment, we studied how these ear postures were affected by specific emotional states elicited by exposing sheep to experimental situations in which elementary characteristics (ie suddenness and unfamiliarity, negative contrast and controllability) were manipulated. We found that: i) the horizontal P posture corresponds to a neutral state; ii) sheep point their ears backward (B posture) when they face unfamiliar and unpleasant uncontrollable situations, hence likely to elicit fear; iii) they point their ears up (R posture) when facing similar negative situations but controllable, hence likely to elicit anger; and iv) they expressed the asymmetric A posture in very sudden situations, likely to elicit surprise. By cross-fostering psychological and ethological approaches, we are able to propose an interpretation of ear postures in sheep relative to their emotions

Inconsistent behavioural and cardiac patterns in ewes'responses to the separation from their lambs

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Integrating modelling and experimental platforms in research infrastructure: design and approach in AnaEE-France.

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Incohérence entre les réponses comportementales et cardiaques chez des brebis séparées de leur agneau

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AnaEE France infrastructure facilities for behavioural ecology studies

AnaEE France (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems - France) is a national research infrastructure forthe study of continental ecosystems (aquatic and terrestrial) and their biodiversity. It offers the scientific community a broad range of 21 services in the form of experimental platforms (in controlled, semicontrolled or natural environments), analysis platforms and shared instruments. AnaEE France also provides access to data and modeling platforms. Some of the platforms are particularly well suited to behavioural ecology studie