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[hal-04914388] Performance, meat quality and blood parameters in four strains of organic broilers differ according to range use
Chicken meat production in organic systems involves free-range access where animals can express foraging and locomotor behaviours. These behaviours may promote outdoor feed intake, but at the same time energy expenditure when exploring the outdoor area. More generally, the relationship of range use with metabolism, welfare including health, growth performance and meat quality needs to be better understood. We studied four strains of intermediate (JA757) to slow-growing (S757N, White Bresse and a dual-purpose strain) meat-type chickens with outdoor access. We selected 25 males high- (HR) and low-rangers (LR) per strain. Only in JA757, HR exhibited lower body weight before range access, which may have predisposed them to use the range more. Carcass weight and/or carcass yield were significantly lower in HR compared to LR, showing a negative trade-off between range use and growth performance in all strains. Breast meat yellowness was higher in HR compared to LR in JA757 and the dual-purpose strain, probably due to carotenoids intake from the grass. No relationship between range use and welfare indicators at slaughter was reported whatever the strain. Chicken metabolism differed by range use as HR and LR diverged for blood biomarkers of oxidative and metabolic status, immune and inflammatory system response.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Claire Bonnefous) 27 Jan 2025
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04914388v1
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[hal-04840794] Transitive reasoning in the adult domestic hen in a six-term series task
Transitive inference (TI) is a disjunctive syllogism that allows an individual to indirectly infer a relationship between two components, by knowing their respective relationship to a third component (if A > B and B > C, then A > C). The common procedure is the 5-term series task, in which individuals are tested on indirect, unlearned relations. Few bird species have been tested for TI to date, which limits our knowledge of the phylogenetic spread of such reasoning ability. Here we tested TI in adult laying hens using a more solid methodology, the 6-term series task, which has not been tested in poultry so far. Six hens were trained to learn direct relationships in a sequence of six arbitrary items (A > B > C > D > E > F) in a hybrid training procedure. Then, 12 testing sessions were run, comprising 3 non-rewarded inference trials each: BD, BE, and CE. All subjects showed TI within 12 inference trials and were capable of TI whatever the relative distance between the items in the series. We found that TI performance was not impacted by the reinforcement ratios of the items for most individuals, making it harder to support a purely associative-based resolution of the task. We suggest that TI is based on the same cognitive processes in poultry ( Galloanserae ) than in modern flying birds ( Neoaves ), and that the cognitive strategy to solve the task might be driven mainly by individual parameters within species. These results contribute to a better understanding of transitive inference processes in birds.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (R. Degrande) 16 Dec 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04840794v1
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[hal-04735026] Exploring neuronal markers and early social environment influence in divergent quail lines selected for social motivation
Many species, including humans exhibit a wide range of social behaviors that are crucial for the adaptation and survival of most species. Brain organization and function are shaped by genetic and environmental factors, although their precise contributions have been relatively understudied in the context of artificial selection. We used divergent lines of quail selected on their high versus low level of motivation to approach a group of conspecifics (S + and S-, respectively) to investigate the influence of genetic selection and early social environment on sociability. We observed distinct sex-and brainregion-specific expression patterns of three neuronal markers: mesotocin, and vasotocin, the avian homologues of mammalian oxytocin and vasopressin, as well as aromatase, the enzyme that converts androgens into estrogens. These markers displayed pronounced and neuroanatomically specific differences between S + and S-quail. Additionally, in a second experiment, we assessed the influence of early social environment on social skills in juvenile birds. Mixing S + and S-resulted in more S-males approaching the group without affecting the sociability of S + or other behaviors, suggesting that the early social environment may influence the results of genetic selection. In conclusion, the divergent quail lines offer a valuable model for unraveling the neuronal and behavioral mechanisms underlying social behaviors.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Lucas Court) 14 Oct 2024
https://hal.science/hal-04735026v1
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[hal-04699728] L’élevage de poulets biologiques : les verrous à lever et les opportunités offertes par cette production
La France est actuellement au premier rang des productions européennes de poulets biologiques. Cette production ne représente toutefois encore que quelques pourcents de la production nationale. L’élevage avicole biologique est souvent considéré comme respectueux du bien-être animal et de l’environnement. Cependant, au-delà de ces images positives que l’élevage avicole biologique et les produits biologiques véhiculent, certaines contraintes déjà identifiées limitent leur développement. Le contact avec la faune sauvage présentant un risque sanitaire, la gestion du parcours, les tensions sur l’environnement dues à une excrétion des déjections sur le parcours difficilement maîtrisable et la sensibilité au contexte économique et aux comportements de consommation sont autant d’obstacles. L’élevage biologique offre néanmoins des opportunités 1) pour l’animal : le parcours facilite l’expression de nombreux comportements et permet la consommation d’insectes et de plantes possédant diverses propriétés (nutritionnelle, médicinales…) ; 2) pour l’éleveur : une amélioration des conditions de travail ainsi qu’une plus grande satisfaction sont mises en avant ; 3) pour l’environnement : le parcours constitue une source de biodiversité. Après une présentation des conditions d’élevage des poulets biologiques en France et en Europe, nous proposons d’identifier les barrières à l’extension de l’élevage biologique et les leviers/opportunités pour les dépasser.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Karine Germain) 17 Sep 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04699728v1
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[hal-04717662] Deleterious effect of social instability on broiler chicken learning abilities and behaviour
Broiler chickens are reared in very large groups and are submitted to repeated encounters with unknown conspecifics. Our aim was to assess the consequences of these encounters on broiler chickens learning abilities, social behaviour and emotional reactivity. Groups of 5 male medium-growing broiler chickens (JA 957) were reared under stable or unstable social conditions (n=16 groups in each condition). Under the unstable conditions, the 5 birds of the groups changed every 3–4 days from 1 to 52 days of age. Broiler chickens were tested in an associative learning task (conditioned place preference) between 14 and 18 days of age. A highly palatable food (mealworms) was delivered in a particular environment with coloured stripes and preference for this environment was then tested. Social behaviours were analysed between 21 and 43 days of age. Emotional reactivity of the birds when faced with novelty (reactivity to unknown food, object and human) was assessed at the end of the rearing period (46–51 days of age). Only birds from the stable condition were able to associate the palatable food to the environment in which it was delivered (p = 0.02). Furthermore, these birds had a higher social proximity than those from the unstable condition (p < 0.01) and showed less aggressive interactions such as aggressive pecking (p = 0.06), threat (p < 0.01) or facing each other with wing flapping in front of another bird (p = 0.03). The social conditions tested had no significant effect on their emotional reactivity. Our results evidenced that chickens exposed to social instability have some learning abilities impaired compared to chickens maintained in stable social conditions. In addition, social instability increases aggressive interactions between conspecifics, while social stability favours bird proximity. In conclusion, being reared in unstable social conditions likely impairs bird adaptation to their rearing environment and increases deleterious consequences of aggressive interactions with conspecifics.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Cécile Arnould) 02 Oct 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04717662v1
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[hal-04677329] Horses can learn to identify joy and sadness against other basic emotions from human facial expressions
Recently, horses and other domestic mammals have been shown to perceive and react to human emotional signals, with most studies focusing on joy and anger. In this study, we tested whether horses can learn to identify human joyful and sad expressions against other emotions. We used a touchscreen-based automated device that presented pairs of human portraits and distributed pellets when the horse touched the rewarded face. Six horses were trained to touch the sad face and 5 the joyful face. By the end of training, horses' performances at the group level were significantly higher than chance level, with higher scores for horses trained with the sad face. At the individual level, evidence of task learning varied among horses, which could be explained by individual variations in horses' ability to identify different human facial expressions or attention issues during the tests. In a generalization test, we introduced portraits of different humans than those presented during training. Horses trained with the joyful face performed better than chance, demonstrating generalization. Conversely, horses trained with the sad face did not. Horses also showed differences in learning performance according to the nonrewarded emotion, providing insights into horses' cognitive processing of facial expressions.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Plotine Jardat) 26 Aug 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04677329v1
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[hal-04637092] Early and late cognitive and behavioral aspects associated with range use in free-range laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Individual differences in free-range chicken systems are important factors in fluencing how birds use the range (or not), even if individuals are reared in the same environmental conditions. Here, we investigated how various aspects of the birds ' behavioral and cognitive tendencies, including their optimism/pessimism, cognitive flexibility, sociability, and exploration levels, are associated with range use and how they may change over time (before and after range access). To achieve this, 100 White Leghorn laying hen chicks underwent three distinct behavioral/cognitive tests - the cognitive bias test, the detour test, and the multivariate test -prior to gaining access to the range, between 9 and 39 days of age. After range access was allowed (from day 71), birds ' range use was evaluated over 7 nonconsecutive days (from 74 -91 days of age). Subsequently, a subset of birds, classi fied as high rangers (n = 15) and low rangers (n = 15) based on their range use, underwent retesting on the same three previous tests between 94 and 108 days of age. Our results unveiled a negative correlation trend between birds ' evaluation of the ambiguous cue and their subsequent range use (rho =0.19, p = 0.07). Furthermore, low rangers were faster to learn the detour task ( x2 = 7.34, df = 1, p = 0.006), coupled with increased sociability during the multivariate test (rho = -0.23, p = 0.02), contrasting with their highranging counterparts, who displayed more exploratory behaviors (F[1,27] = 3.64, p = 0.06). These behavioral patterns fluctuated over time (before and after range access); however, conclusively attributing these changes to birds ' aging and development or the access to the range remains challenging. Overall, our results corroborate that behavioral and cognitive individual differences may be linked to range use and offer novel perspectives on the early behavioral and cognitive traits that may be linked to range use. These findings may serve as a foundation for adapting environments to meet individual needs and improve animal welfare in the future.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 05 Jul 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04637092v1
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[hal-04588500] High-throughput phenotyping to characterise range use behaviour in broiler chickens
A key characteristic of free-range chicken farming is to enable chickens to spend time outdoors. However, each chicken may use the available areas for roaming in variable ways. To check if, and how, broilers use their outdoor range at an individual level, we need to reliably characterise range use behaviour. Traditional methods relying on visual scans require significant time investment and only provide discontinuous information. Passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems enable tracking individually tagged chickens’ when they go through pop-holes; hence, they only provide partial information on the movements of individual chickens. Here, we describe a new method to measure chickens’ range use and test its reliability on three ranges each containing a different breed. We used an active RFID system to localise chickens in their barn, or in one of nine zones of their range, every 30 seconds and assessed range-use behaviour in 600 chickens belonging to three breeds of slow- or medium-growing broilers used for outdoor production (all <40 g daily weight gain). From those real-time locations, we determined five measures to describe daily range use: time spent in the barn, number of outdoor accesses, number of zones visited in a day, gregariousness (an index that increases when birds spend time in zones where other birds are), and numbers of zone changes. Principal Component Analyses (PCAs) were performed on those measures, in each production system, to create two synthetic indicators of chickens’ range use behaviour. The first two PCA axes represented over 90% of the variance of the five measures and were both consistent over time and correlated with independent visual scans. Contributions of the five measures to the PCAs were similar among breeds, except for the correlation between the number of outdoor accesses and the four other measures. PC1 correlated with time spent inside the barn and zone changes frequency, whilst PC2 was explained by exploration of the range. Taken together, PC1 and PC2 indicators showed that range use increased with age, outdoor temperature (in spring), and did not differ between males and females. Importantly, daily scores for both indicators were repeatable among individuals - particularly in PC1 - showing inter-individual variability on range-use. The characterisation of broiler behaviour around their range with these reliable and repeatable indicators provides novel tools to help understand individual variations of range-use in free-range farming.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Julie Collet) 27 May 2024
https://hal.science/hal-04588500v1
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[hal-04699193] Maternal stress effects across generations in a precocial bird
Prenatal maternal stress (PMS) is known to shape the phenotype of the first generation offspring (F1) but according to some studies, it could also shape the phenotype of the offspring of the following generations. We previously showed in the Japanese quail that PMS increased the emotional reactivity of F1 offspring in relation to (i) a variation in the levels of some histone post-translational modification (H3K27me3) in their brains and (ii) a modulation of the hormonal composition of the eggs from which they hatched. Here, we wondered whether PMS could also influence the behaviour of the second (F2) and third (F3) generation offspring due to the persistence of the specific marks we identified. Using a principal component analysis, we found that PMS influenced F2 and F3 quail profiles with subtle differences between generations. It increased F2 neophobia, F3 fearfulness and F3 neophobia but only in females. Interestingly, we did not find any variations in the level of histone post-translational modification in F3 brains and we observed inconsistent modulations of androstenedione levels in F1 and F2 eggs. Although they may vary over generations, our results demonstrate that PMS can have phenotypical effects into the third generation.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Marion Charrier) 17 Sep 2024
https://hal.science/hal-04699193v1
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[hal-04548377] Discrimination of familiar and unfamiliar human voices is independent of prolonged human-animal interaction in domestic chicks
Different animal species, both domestic and wild, can discriminate between various human cues, such as voices, and adjust their behavior based on whether they are familiar or unfamiliar with these cues. To investigate whether this ability extends to a domesticated species not specifically bred for human interaction and whether it can manifest at an early age, even under commercial-like conditions with limited human interaction, we conducted human vocal discrimination tests on domestic chicks at two ages (25 and 67 days old). Our findings showed that chicks could discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar voices at both ages, exhibiting increased vigilance when a known sentence was spoken by an unfamiliar voice compared to a familiar voice. We also found that chicks were more vigilant after a familiar voice delivered an unknown sentence, compared to an unfamiliar voice delivered a known sentence. This suggests a violation of expectation when animals are confronted with mixed familiar/unfamiliar heterospecific signals. Our findings support that neither specific selection for interaction with humans, nor an extended history of exposure to humans, is a prerequisite for animals to discriminate heterospecific cues, such as human voices.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 16 Apr 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04548377v1
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[hal-04426412] Feeding predictability as a cognitive enrichment protects brain function and physiological status in rainbow trout: a multidisciplinary approach to assess fish welfare
Cognitive enrichment is a promising but understudied type of environmental enrichment that aims to stimulate the cognitive abilities of animals by providing them with more opportunities to interact with (namely, to predict events than can occur) and to control their environment. In a previous study, we highlighted that farmed rainbow trout can predict daily feedings after two weeks of conditioning, the highest conditioned response being elicited by the combination of both temporal and signalled predictability. In the present study, we tested the feeding predictability that elicited the highest conditioned response in rainbow trout (both temporal and signalled by bubbles, BUBBLE+TIME treatment) as a cognitive enrichment strategy to improve their welfare. We thus analysed long-term effects of this feeding predictability condition as compared with an unpredictable feeding condition (RANDOM treatment) on the welfare of rainbow trout, including the markers in the modulation of brain function, through a multidisciplinary approach. To reveal the brain regulatory pathways and networks involved in the long-term effects of feeding predictability, we measured genes markers of cerebral activity and plasticity, neurotransmitters pathways and physiological status of fish (oxidative stress, inflammatory status, cell type and stress status). After almost three months under these predictability conditions of feeding, we found clear evidence of improved welfare in fish from BUBBLE+TIME treatment. Feeding predictability allowed for a food anticipatory activity and resulted in fewer aggressive behaviours, burst of accelerations, and jumps before mealtime. BUBBLE+TIME fish were also less active between meals, which is in line with the observed decreased expression of transcripts related to the dopaminergic system. BUBBLE+TIME fish tented to present fewer eroded dorsal fin and infections to the pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum. Decreased expression of most of the studied mRNA involved in oxidative stress and immune responses confirm these tendencies else suggesting a strong role of feeding predictability on fish health status and that RANDOM fish may have undergone chronic stress. Fish emotional reactivity while isolated in a novel-tank as measured by fear behaviour and plasma cortisol levels were similar between the two treatments, as well as fish weight and size. To conclude, signalled combined with temporal predictability of feeding appears to be a promising approach of cognitive enrichment to protect brain function via physiological status of farmed rainbow trout in the long term.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Aude Kleiber) 21 Mar 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04426412v1
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[hal-04069771] Horses cross-modally recognize women and men
Abstract Several studies have shown that horses have the ability to cross-modally recognize humans by associating their voice with their physical appearance. However, it remains unclear whether horses are able to differentiate humans according to different criteria, such as the fact that they are women or men. Horses might recognize some human characteristics, such as sex, and use these characteristics to classify them into different categories. The aim of this study was to explore whether domesticated horses are able to cross-modally recognize women and men according to visual and auditory cues, using a preferential looking paradigm. We simultaneously presented two videos of women and men’s faces, while playing a recording of a human voice belonging to one of these two categories through a loudspeaker. The results showed that the horses looked significantly more towards the congruent video than towards the incongruent video, suggesting that they are able to associate women’s voices with women’s faces and men’s voices with men’s faces. Further investigation is necessary to determine the mechanism underlying this recognition, as it might be interesting to determine which characteristics horses use to categorize humans. These results suggest a novel perspective that could allow us to better understand how horses perceive humans.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Chloé Gouyet) 14 Apr 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04069771v1
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[hal-04524493] Are domesticated animals dumber than their wild relatives? A comprehensive review on the domestication effects on animal cognitive performance
Animal domestication leads to diverse behavioral, physiological, and neurocognitive changes in domesticated species compared to their wild relatives. However, the widely held belief that domesticated species are inherently less "intelligent" (i.e., have lower cognitive performance) than their wild counterparts requires further investigation. To investigate potential cognitive disparities, we undertook a thorough review of 88 studies comparing the cognitive performance of domesticated and wild animals. Approximately 30% of these studies showed superior cognitive abilities in wild animals, while another 30% highlighted superior cognitive abilities in domesticated animals. The remaining 40% of studies found similar cognitive performance between the two groups. Therefore, the question regarding the presumed intelligence of wild animals and the diminished cognitive ability of domesticated animals remains unresolved. We discuss important factors/limitations for interpreting past and future research, including environmental influences, diverse objectives of domestication (such as breed development), developmental windows, and methodological issues impacting cognitive comparisons. Rather than perceiving these limitations as constraints, future researchers should embrace them as opportunities to expand our understanding of the complex relationship between domestication and animal cognition.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 28 Mar 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04524493v1
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[hal-04219741] Comment les volailles perçoivent et interprètent leur environnement : recherche scientifique et exemples d’applications
La science s’intéresse de longue date aux pratiques d’élevage et à la notion de sensibilité animale. En accord avec ces questionnements, il existe une demande sociétale croissante pour l’amélioration des conditions de vie des animaux de rente. Cette amélioration nécessite des connaissances de leurs capacités cognitives, qui permettent à l’animal de traiter, mémoriser, interpréter ce qui se passe dans son environnement. Ces connaissances permettent d’expliquer voire limiter certains comportements observés en élevage. [ Cet article est issu d’une synthèse présentée aux 14èmes Journées de la Recherche Avicole des 9-10 mars 2022 à Tours. (Calandreau et al., 2022) ]
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Rachel Degrande) 27 Sep 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04219741v1
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[hal-04524456] Chronic dietary exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide in broiler hens has long-term impacts on the progeny metabolism
Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are the most commonly used herbicides in agriculture. Sev-eral studies reported possible adverse effects on human and animal models after a GBH exposure. However, the effects of a temporary maternal exposure on the progeny have been poorly documented, especially in avian mod-els. We investigated the effects of a hen chronic dietary exposure to a GBH on the progeny, obtained during the period following the withdrawal of GBH from the diet. Hens were exposed to a GBH via their food for 6 wk, after which the GBH was removed from their food. Eggs from these hens were collected 3 wk after the GBH was withdrawn for 1 wk. We monitored the growth perform-ances, metabolic parameters, and behavior from the progeny of the hens (Ex-GBH chicks, n = 186) and com-pared them with those of unexposed control-hen prog-eny (CT chicks, n = 213). Ex-GBH chicks were more likely to explore their new environment than CT chicks during the open-field test. In addition, they had an increased fattening and blood triglycerides level, whereas their food consumption was similar to CT chicks. Quantitative PCR on the chemerin system and FASN in chicks livers indicate a transcriptional activity in favor of fatty acid synthesis, and lipidomic analysis on chicks abdominal adipose tissue reveal a global increase in monounsaturated fatty acid and a global decrease in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Seven genes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids were identified with the open access LIPIDMAP software, and their disturbance in Ex-GBH chicks was confirmed via qPCR. Taken together, these results suggest that the progeny of hens temporarily exposed to a GBH are more likely to fatten, even with a balanced diet. The removal of GBH from their contaminated environment would therefore not be sufficient to completely restore their health, has it could induce transgenerational effects.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Anthony Estienne) 28 Mar 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04524456v1
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[hal-04129091] Environmental enrichment improves cognitive flexibility in rainbow trout in a visual discrimination task: first insights
Research on fish cognition provides strong evidence that fish are endowed with high level cognitive skills. However, most studies on cognitive flexibility and generalization abilities, two key adaptive traits for captive animals, focused on model species, and farmed fish received too little attention. Environmental enrichment was shown to improve learning abilities in various fish species, but its influence on cognitive flexibility and generalization abilities is still unknown. We studied farmed rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) as an aquaculture model to study how environmental enrichment impacts their cognitive abilities. Using an operant conditioning device, allowing the expression of a motivated choice, we measured fish cognitive flexibility with serial reversal learning tests, after a successful acquisition phase based on two colors discrimination (2-alternative forced choice, 2-AFC), and their ability to generalize a rewarded color to any shape. Eight fish were divided into two groups: Condition E (fish reared from fry stages under enriched conditions with plants, rocks and pipes for ~9 months); Condition B (standard barren conditions). Only one fish (condition E) failed in the habituation phase of the device and one fish (condition B) failed in the 2-AFC task. We showed that after a successful acquisition phase in which the fish correctly discriminated two colors, they all succeeded in four reversal learnings, supporting evidence for cognitive flexibility in rainbow trout. They were all successful in the generalization task. Interestingly, fish reared in an enriched environment performed better in the acquisition phase and in the reversal learning (as evidenced by fewer trials needed to reach the learning criterion), but not in the generalization task. We assume that color-based generalization may be a simpler cognitive process than discriminative learning and cognitive flexibility, and does not seem to be influenced by environmental conditions. Given the small number of individuals tested, our results may be considered as first insights into cognitive flexibility in farmed fish using an operant conditioning device, but they pave the way for future studies. We conclude that farming conditions should take into account the cognitive abilities of fish, in particular their cognitive flexibility, by allowing them to live in an enriched environment.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Valentin Brunet) 15 Jun 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04129091v1
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[hal-04109688] Cognitive enrichment to increase fish welfare in aquaculture: A review
While most animals have received increasing attention for their welfare, consideration for fish welfare has started more recently, particularly since the recognition that fish have emotions and complex cognitive abilities. Housing conditions in fish farms do not always meet fish ethological requirements as these conditions lack sufficient sensory and cognitive stimulations. An approach to address this issue involves enriching the rearing environment by including social, food, physical, or cognitive stimuli. Cognitive enrichment (CE) is a recent but promising concept to improve fish welfare by manipulating the predictability and controllability of their environment. It relies not only on the ability of fish to predict positive and negative events but also on their ability to perform and succeed in operant conditioning. In our present review, we identified four categories of CE: (i) feeding predictability, (ii) predictability of a negative event, (iii) operant conditioning through self-feeders, and (iv) learning experiences. Existing CEs were reviewed for their effects on behaviour, brain, zootechnical performances, and welfare in terms of physiological stress or physical integrity in the aquarium and farmed teleost fish. The review highlights unbalanced categories and the lack of adequate multidisciplinary analyses to assess the effects of these categories on fish welfare. Providing free access to self-feeders seems to be a good strategy, given its positive effects on zootechnical and physiological parameters. Other categories showed contradictory and species-dependent results; hence, further studies are required to confirm the benefits of CE on fish welfare. Finally, further investigations should also validate current CE systems and assess other strategies that may trigger positive emotions in fish.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Aude Kleiber) 14 Mar 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04109688v1
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[hal-04011829] Horses discriminate human body odors between fear and joy contexts in a habituation-discrimination protocol
Animals are widely believed to sense human emotions through smell. Chemoreception is the most primitive and ubiquitous sense, and brain regions responsible for processing smells are among the oldest structures in mammalian evolution. Thus, chemosignals might be involved in interspecies communication. The communication of emotions is essential for social interactions, but very few studies have clearly shown that animals can sense human emotions through smell. We used a habituation-discrimination protocol to test whether horses can discriminate between human odors produced while feeling fear vs. joy. Horses were presented with sweat odors of humans who reported feeling fear or joy while watching a horror movie or a comedy, respectively. A first odor was presented twice in successive trials (habituation), and then, the same odor and a novel odor were presented simultaneously (discrimination). The two odors were from the same human in the fear or joy condition; the experimenter and the observer were blinded to the condition. Horses sniffed the novel odor longer than the repeated odor, indicating they discriminated between human odors produced in fear and joy contexts. Moreover, differences in habituation speed and asymmetric nostril use according to odor suggest differences in the emotional processing of the two odors.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Plotine Jardat) 02 Mar 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04011829v1
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[hal-04052261] Behavioural indicators of range use in four broiler strains
Free-range systems provide an outdoor range for broilers to give them the possibility to express a higher frequency and a wider range of behaviours, such as exploration, compared with those raised indoors. Greater variability in outdoor range use between individuals of the same flock is often reported. Individual variation in range use may result from differences in early-life behaviour or genetic background. Understanding how earlylife behaviour influences range use may provide opportunities to enhance and predict range use. Previous studies have shown that range use could be influenced by the animal’s personality traits such as social motivation, boldness and foraging motivation. Therefore, this study investigated personality traits in several broiler strains, namely Hubbard JA757, Hubbard S757N, White Bresse and a dual-purpose strain; we examined the latter as it represents a potential solution to the ban of 1-day-old chick culling. The present study also investigated early-life behaviours, before range access, of range use to identify and assess the stability of these early-life indicators among the four broiler strains. For that purpose, we recorded the behaviour and range use of 100 male chickens per strain, both in the barn and during individual tests, before and after range access. We examined which behaviours were time consistent, whether early-life behaviours were influenced by genetic variation and whether early-life behavioural indicators predicted range use regardless of genetic variation. There was a significant (p < 0.001) difference between strains in several early-life behaviours, including the time spent resting or standing. Range use was time consistent regardless of the strain as our range use indicator followed a high-quality linear regression model (R2 > 0.7) for 82–99% of the individuals depending on their strain. Besides, time consistency of social motivation and boldness seemed to depend on the strain. Even though foraging showed low (rho = 0.2–0.4) positive correlations with range use in three of the four studied strains, there were no significant and strong correlations in the four studied strains between early-life behavioural indicators and range use. In conclusion, our results show that the link between chick behaviour (before range access) and range use can be modulated by the bird’s strain. It is crucial to consider all these different factors to better understand how range use varies within and between flocks.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Claire Bonnefous) 30 Mar 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04052261v1
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[hal-04185480] Short photoperiod modulates behavior, cognition and hippocampal neurogenesis in male Japanese quail
The mechanisms underlying the photoperiodic control of reproduction in mammals and birds have been recently clarified. In contrast, the potential impact of photoperiod on more complex, integrative processes, such as cognitive behaviors, remains poorly characterized. Here, we investigated the impact of contrasted long and short photoperiods (LP, 16 h light/day and SP, 8 h light/day, respectively) on learning, spatial orientation abilities, and emotional reactivity in male Japanese quail. In addition, we quantified cell proliferation and young cell maturation/migration within the hippocampus, a brain region involved in spatial orientation. Our study reveals that, in male quail, SP increases emotional responses and spatial orientation abilities, compared to LP. Behaviorally, SP birds were found to be more fearful than LP birds, exhibiting more freezing in the open field and taking longer to exit the dark compartment in the emergence test. Furthermore, SP birds were significantly less aggressive than LP birds in a mirror test. Cognitively, SP birds were slower to habituate and learn a spatial orientation task compared to LP birds. However, during a recall test, SP birds performed better than LP birds. From a neuroanatomical standpoint, SP birds had a significantly lower density of young neurons, and also tended to have a lower density of mature neurons within the hippocampus, compared to LP birds. In conclusion, our data reveal that, beyond breeding control, photoperiod also exerts a profound influence on behavior, cognition, and brain plasticity, which comprise the seasonal program of this species.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Marion Georgelin) 22 Aug 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04185480v1
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[hal-04213124] Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy
Communication of emotions plays a key role in intraspecific social interactions and likely in interspecific interactions. Several studies have shown that animals perceive human joy and anger, but few studies have examined other human emotions, such as sadness. In this study, we conducted a cross-modal experiment, in which we showed 28 horses two soundless videos simultaneously, one showing a sad, and one a joyful human face. These were accompanied by either a sad or joyful voice. The number of horses whose first look to the video that was incongruent with the voice was longer than their first look to the congruent video was higher than chance, suggesting that horses could form cross-modal representations of human joy and sadness. Moreover, horses were more attentive to the videos of joy and looked at them for longer, more frequently, and more rapidly than the videos of sadness. Their heart rates tended to increase when they heard joy and to decrease when they heard sadness. These results show that horses are able to discriminate facial and vocal expressions of joy and sadness and may form cross-modal representations of these emotions; they also are more attracted to joyful faces than to sad faces and seem to be more aroused by a joyful voice than a sad voice. Further studies are needed to better understand how horses perceive the range of human emotions, and we propose that future experiments include neutral stimuli as well as emotions with different arousal levels but a same valence.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Plotine Jardat) 21 Sep 2023
https://hal.science/hal-04213124v1
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[hal-03751952] Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children
Recently, research on domestic mammals' sociocognitive skills toward humans has been prolific, allowing us to better understand the human-animal relationship. For example, horses have been shown to distinguish human beings on the basis of photographs and voices and to have cross-modal mental representations of individual humans and human emotions. This leads to questions such as the extent to which horses can differentiate human attributes such as age. Here, we tested whether horses discriminate human adults from children. In a cross-modal paradigm, we presented 31 female horses with two simultaneous muted videos of a child and an adult saying the same neutral sentence, accompanied by the sound of an adult's or child's voice speaking the sentence. The horses looked significantly longer at the videos that were incongruent with the heard voice than at the congruent videos. We conclude that horses can match adults' and children's faces and voices cross-modally. Moreover, their heart rates increased during children's vocalizations but not during adults'. This suggests that in addition to having mental representations of adults and children, horses have a stronger emotional response to children's voices than adults' voices.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Plotine Jardat) 16 Aug 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03751952v1
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[hal-03626271] Pet-directed speech improves horses’ attention toward humans
In a recent experiment, we showed that horses are sensitive to pet-directed speech (PDS), a kind of speech used to talk to companion animals that is characterized by high pitch and wide pitch variations. When talked to in PDS rather than adult-directed speech (ADS), horses reacted more favorably during grooming and in a pointing task. However, the mechanism behind their response remains unclear: does PDS draw horses’ attention and arouse them, or does it make their emotional state more positive? In this study, we used an innovative paradigm in which female horses watched videos of humans speaking in PDS or ADS to better understand this phenomenon. Horses reacted differently to the videos of PDS and ADS: they were significantly more attentive and their heart rates increased significantly more during PDS than during ADS. We found no difference in the expressions of negative or positive emotional states during PDS and ADS videos. Thus, we confirm that horses’ perception of humans can be studied by means of video projections, and we conclude that PDS attracts attention and has an arousing effect in horses, with consequences on the use of PDS in daily interactions with them.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Plotine Jardat) 31 Mar 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03626271v1
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[hal-03746208] Positive effects of bubbles as a feeding predictor on behaviour of farmed rainbow trout
Occupational enrichment emerges as a promising strategy for improving the welfare of farmed animals. This form of enrichment aims to stimulate cognitive abilities of animals by providing them with more opportunities to interact with and control their environment. Predictability of salient daily events, and in particular predictability of feeding, is currently one of the most studied occupational enrichment strategies and can take several forms. In fish, while temporal predictability of feeding has been widely investigated, signalled predictability (based on a signal, such as light or sound) has received little attention. Depending on the type of predictability used and the ecology of the species, the effects on fish welfare often differ. The present study aimed to determine which feeding predictability would be most appropriate for rainbow trout, the main continental farmed fish in Europe, and what the consequences might be for their welfare. We tested four feeding predictability conditions: temporal (based on time of day), signalled (based on bubble diffusion), temporal + signalled (based on time and bubble diffusion), and unpredictable (random feeding times). Behavioural and zootechnical outcomes recorded were swimming activity, aggressive behaviours, burst of accelerations, and jumps, emotional reactivity, and growth. Our results showed that rainbow trout can predict daily feedings relying on time and/or bubbles as predictors as early as two weeks of conditioning, as evidenced by their increased swimming activity before feeding or during feed omission tests, which allowed to reinforce their conditioned response. Temporal predictability alone resulted in an increase in pre-feeding aggressive behaviours, burst of accelerations, and jumps, suggesting that the use of time as the sole predictor of feedings in husbandry practices may be detrimental to fish welfare. Signalled predictability with bubbles alone resulted in fewer pre-feeding agonistic behaviours, burst of accelerations, and jumps than in the temporal predictability condition. The combination of temporal and signalled predictability elicited the highest conditioned response and the level of pre-feeding aggression behaviours, burst of accelerations and jumps tended to be lower than for temporal predictability alone. Interestingly, fish swimming activity during bubble diffusion also revealed that bubbles were highly attractive regardless of the condition. Rainbow trout growth and emotional reactivity were not affected by the predictability condition. We conclude, therefore, that the use of bubbles as a feeding predictor could represent an interesting approach to improve rainbow trout welfare in farms, by acting as both an occupational and physical enrichment.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Aude Kleiber) 31 Aug 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03746208v1
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[hal-04185493] White Leghorn and Red Junglefowl female chicks use distal and local cues similarly, but differ in persistency behaviors, during a spatial orientation task
Although there is evidence to suggest that animal domestication acts as a modulator of spatial orientation, little is known on how domesticated animals, compared to their wild counterparts, orientate themselves when confronted to different environmental cues. Here, using domesticated White Leghorn chicks, and their ancestor, the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus), our main objective was to investigate how bird domestication influences the use of distal and local cues, during an orientation task. We also investigated the memory retention of these cues over time, and how persistent/flexible individuals from both breeds were at pecking at unreachable mealworms. Our results showed that the breeds did not differ in their use of distal or local cues, with both showing a marked preference for the use of local cues over distal ones. Over time, individual performance declined, but this was not influenced by the type of cue present during the tests, nor by the breed. Domesticated chicks showed greater signs of persistency compared to their wild conspecifics. In conclusion, domestication did not seem to alter how birds orientate spatially, but may have caused more subtle changes, such as an increase in behavioral persistency, a feature that may be adaptative in human-controlled and homogenous environments.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 22 Aug 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04185493v1
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[hal-03753546] Domestic hens succeed at serial reversal learning and perceptual concept generalisation using a new automated touchscreen device
Improving the welfare of farm animals depends on our knowledge on how they perceive and interpret their environment; the latter depends on their cognitive abilities. Hence, limited knowledge of the range of cognitive abilities of farm animals is a major concern. An effective approach to explore the cognitive range of a species is to apply automated testing devices, which are still underdeveloped in farm animals. In screen-like studies, the uses of automated devices are few in domestic hens. We developed an original fully automated touchscreen device using digital computer-drawn colour pictures and independent sensible cells adapted for cognitive testing in domestic hens, enabling a wide range of test types from low to high complexity. This study aimed to test the efficiency of our device using two cognitive tests. We focused on tasks related to adaptive capacities to environmental variability, such as flexibility and generalisation capacities as this is a good start to approach more complex cognitive capacities. We implemented a serial reversal learning task, categorised as a simple cognitive test, and a delayed matching-to-sample (dMTS) task on an identity concept, followed by a generalisation test, categorised as more complex. In the serial reversal learning task, the hens performed equally for the two changing reward contingencies in only three reversal stages. In the dMTS task, the hens increased their performance rapidly throughout the training sessions. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, we present the first positive result of identity concept generalisation in a dMTS task in domestic hens. Our results provide additional information on the behavioural flexibility and concept understanding of domestic hens. They also support the idea that fully automated devices would improve knowledge of farm animals’ cognition.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Rachel Degrande) 18 Aug 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03753546v1
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[hal-03755536] Physical Enrichment Triggers Brain Plasticity and Influences Blood Plasma Circulating miRNA in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Physical enrichment is known to improve living conditions of fish held in farming systems and has been shown to promote behavioral plasticity in captive fish. However, the brain’s regulatory-mechanism systems underlying its behavioral effects remain poorly studied. The present study investigated the impact of a three-month exposure to an enriched environment (EE vs. barren environment, BE) on the modulation of brain function in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) juveniles. Using high-throughput RT-qPCR, we assessed mRNA genes related to brain function in several areas of the trout brain. These included markers of cerebral activity and plasticity, neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, or selected neurotransmitters pathways (dopamine, glutamate, GABA, and serotonin). Overall, the fish from EE displayed a series of differentially expressed genes (neurotrophic, neurogenesis, and synaptogenesis markers) essentially localized in the telencephalon, which could underpin the beneficial effects of complexifying the environment on fish brain plasticity. In addition, EE significantly affected blood plasma c-miRNA signatures, as revealed by the upregulation of four c-miRNAs (miR-200b/c-3p, miR-203a-3p, miR-205-1a-5p, miR-218a-5p) in fish blood plasma after 185 days of EE exposure. Overall, we concluded that complexifying the environment through the addition of physical structures that stimulate and encourage fish to explore promotes the trout’s brain function in farming conditions.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Emilie Cardona) 22 Aug 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03755536v1
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[hal-03595640] Impact of natural and artificial prenatal stimulations on the behavioural profile of Japanese quail
As the sensory systems of vertebrates develop prenatally, embryos perceive many environmental stimuli that can influence the ontogeny of their behaviour. Whether the nature and intensity of prenatal stimuli affect this ontogeny differently remains to be investigated. In this context, this study aimed to analyse the effects of prenatal auditory stimulation (natural stimulation, NS; predator vocalisations or artificial stimulation, AS; metallic sounds) on the subsequent behaviour of young Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). For this, behavioural variables recorded during ethological tests evaluating emotional and social reactivity were analysed using a principal component analysis. This analysis revealed significant differences between the behavioural profile of stimulated chicks and that of non-exposed chicks. Indeed, chicks exposed to NS expressed more intense emotional responses in fearful situations, but less neophobia when exposed to a novel environment or object, whereas chicks exposed to AS appeared more sensitive to social isolation. Our results show that the acoustic environment of embryos can influence the way young birds subsequently interact with their social and physical environment after hatching, and face challenges in changing living conditions.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Nawel Mezrai) 13 May 2022
https://hal.science/hal-03595640v1
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[hal-03627159] Foraging Behavior Shows Individual-Consistency Over Time, and Predicts Range Use in Slow-Growing Free-Range Male Broiler Chickens
Recent research on free-range chickens shows that individual behavioral differences may link to range use. However, most of these studies explored individual behavioral differences only at one time point or during a short time window, assessed differences when animals were out of their social group and home environment (barn and range), and in specific tests or situations. Therefore, it is yet unclear how different behaviors relate to range use and how consistent these behaviors are at the individual level. To fill this gap, we here aimed to describe the behavioral budget of slow-growing male broiler chickens (S757N) when in their social group and home environment during the whole rearing period (from the second week of life to the twelfth week, before slaughter), and to relate observed behavioral differences to range use. For this, we followed a sample of individuals in two flocks ( n = 60 focal chickens out of 200 chickens per flock), over two seasons, during three periods: before range access (from 14 to 25 days old), during early range access (first weeks of range access, from 37 to 53 days old), and during late range access (last weeks of range access, from 63 to 87 days old). By the end of each period, individual tests of exploration and social motivation were also performed, measuring exploration/activity and sociability propensities. Our results show that foraging (i.e., pecking and scratching at the ground) was the only behavior that correlated to range use for all three rearing periods, independent of the season. Foraging was also the only behavior that showed within-individual consistency from an early age and across the three rearing periods. Foraging may, therefore, serve as a useful behavioral predictor of range use in free-range broiler chickens. Our study increases the knowledge of how behaviors develop and relate to each other in a domesticated and intensely selected species, and improves our understanding of the biology of free-range broiler chickens. These findings can, ultimately, serve as a foundation to increase range use and improve chicken welfare.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 03 May 2024
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03627159v1
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[hal-03555171] Prenatal maternal stress is associated with behavioural and epigenetic changes in Japanese quail
Prenatal maternal stress (PMS) influences many facets of offspring’s phenotype including morphology, behaviour and cognitive abilities. Recent research suggested that PMS also induced epigenetic modifications. In the present study, we analysed, in the Japanese quail, the effects of PMS on the emotional reactivity and cognitive abilities of the F1 offspring. We also investigated in the hippocampus, the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus and subnuclei of the arcopallium/amygdala the level of two histone post-translational modifications, H3K4me2 and H3K27me3, known to be impacted by stress. We found that PMS does not affect F1 quail’s learning abilities but increases their emotional reactivity. Moreover, we demonstrated that PMS induced an increased density of H3K27me3 positive cells, in the hippocampus, paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus and dorsal nucleus of the amygdala, but not variations of H3K4me2. As these brain regions are involved in the control of vertebrates’ emotional responses, the effect of PMS on the epigenetic mark H3K27me3 could possibly be a mechanism involved in the behavioural effects we observed in F1 quail.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Marion Charrier) 30 Mar 2022
https://hal.science/hal-03555171v1
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[hal-03627385] A novel male Japanese quail structural connectivity atlas using ultra-high field diffusion MRI at 11.7 T
The structural connectivity of animal brains can be revealed using post-mortem diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Despite the existence of several structural atlases of avian brains, few of them address the bird’s structural connectivity. In this study, a novel atlas of the structural connectivity is proposed for the male Japanese quail ( Coturnix japonica ), aiming at investigating two lines divergent on their emotionality trait: the short tonic immobility (STI) and the long tonic immobility (LTI) lines. The STI line presents a low emotionality trait, while the LTI line expresses a high emotionality trait. 21 male Japanese quail brains from both lines were scanned post-mortem for this study, using a preclinical Bruker 11.7 T MRI scanner. Diffusion-weighted MRI was performed using a 3D segmented echo planar imaging (EPI) pulsed gradient spin-echo (PGSE) sequence with a 200 μm isotropic resolution, 75 diffusion-encoding directions and a b-value fixed at 4500 s/mm 2 . Anatomical MRI was likewise performed using a 2D anatomical T 2 -weighted spin-echo (SE) sequence with a 150 μm isotropic resolution. This very first anatomical connectivity atlas of the male Japanese quail reveals 34 labeled fiber tracts and the existence of structural differences between the connectivity patterns characterizing the two lines. Thus, the link between the male Japanese quail’s connectivity and its underlying anatomical structures has reached a better understanding.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Raïssa Yebga Hot) 08 Dec 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03627385v1
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[hal-03448777] Microbiota and stress: a loop that impacts memory
Chronic stress and the gut microbiota appear to comprise a feed-forward loop, which contributes to the development of depressive disorders. Evidence suggests that memory can also be impaired by either chronic stress or microbiota imbalance. However, it remains to be established whether these could be a part of an integrated loop model and be responsible for memory impairments. To shed light on this, we used a two-pronged approach in Japanese quail: first stress-induced alterations in gut microbiota were characterized, then we tested whether this altered microbiota could affect brain and memory function when transferred to a germ-free host. The cecal microbiota of chronically stressed quails was found to be significantly different from that of unstressed individuals with lower α and β diversities and increased Bacteroidetes abundance largely represented by the Alistipes genus, a well-known stress target in rodents and humans. The transfer of this altered microbiota into germ-free quails decreased their spatial and cue-based memory abilities as previously demonstrated in the stressed donors. The recipients also displayed increased anxiety-like behavior, reduced basal plasma corticosterone levels and differential gene expression in the brain. Furthermore, cecal microbiota transfer from a chronically stressed individual was sufficient to mimic the adverse impact of chronic stress on memory in recipient hosts and this action may be related to the Alistipes genus. Our results provide evidence of a feed-forward loop system linking the microbiota-gut-brain axis to stress and memory function and suggest that maintaining a healthy microbiota could help alleviate memory impairments linked to chronic stress.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Narjis Kraimi) 18 Jan 2022
https://hal.science/hal-03448777v1
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[hal-04216008] Tester les capacités de métacognition pour étudier la conscience chez les mammifères
Chez les animaux, étudier la conscience ou les processus mentaux de manière générale reste relativement compliqué. En effet ces derniers ne peuvent pas rapporter verbalement s’ils sont conscients de leurs actions, de ce qu’ils ont ou non en mémoire, ou de ce qu’ils comprennent des informations présentées. Pour contourner cette difficulté inhérente aux études animales, les recherches ont consisté à développer des méthodologies pour étudier des processus mentaux qui, chez l’humain, impliquent un traitement conscient des informations. L’étude de la métacognition animale est probablement un des domaines de recherche où ce type de développement méthodologique a été très poussé et qui a largement contribué au questionnement sur la conscience chez les animaux. La métacognition est une forme de cognition qui permet à un individu d’évaluer le niveau de ses connaissances. En d’autres termes, elle lui permet de rendre compte « qu’il sait qu’il sait » ou « qu’il sait qu’il ne sait pas », et donc qu’il a conscience de son niveau de connaissance. Cette faculté mentale a longtemps été considérée comme exclusivement humaine mais une étude pionnière chez le dauphin en 1995 a remis en question cette vision. Depuis cette expérience, un développement important de paradigmes expérimentaux a été entrepris pour tester la métacognition animale, en particulier chez les mammifères. Ces paradigmes permettent de tester deux aspects de la métacognition : le monitoring métacognitif (i.e. la capacité à juger de son propre état de connaissance) et le contrôle métacognitif (la capacité à rechercher des informations lorsqu'un manque de connaissance a été détecté)
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Ludovic Calandreau) 23 Sep 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04216008v1
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[hal-04179448] La caille japonaise (Coturnix coturnix japonica) : un modèle pour des études dans de nombreuses disciplines
La caille japonaise est un petit oiseau de la famille des Phasianidés qui est très utilisé pour étudier de nombreux processus développementaux et qui sert également de modèle pour mimer les processus d’intérêt présents chez les volailles. Cet oiseau de petite taille a une croissance rapide avec une maturité sexuelle aux alentours de 8 à 10 semaines, ce qui facilite la production de lignées génétiques. La caille a été une espèce utilisée pour des travaux fondateurs sur le développement embryonnaire. Les travaux en toxicologie ont également beaucoup utilisé ce modèle. La caille a été utilisée pour étudier certains facteurs maternels et transgénérationnels qui influencent les comportements et divers mécanismes physiologiques. Cette espèce constitue un modèle d’étude historique pour comprendre comment le cerveau intègre le signal photopériodique. Cette espèce est capable d’apprentissages simples de type conditionnement, mais aussi d’apprentissages plus complexes reposant sur la mémoire spatiale et les bases neurobiologiques de ces processus cognitifs font l’objet d’investigations croissantes. Cet oiseau est utilisé comme modèle pour certains caractères de production des volailles, mais également pour rechercher des mécanismes biologiques très variés d’intérêt fondamental.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Christine Leterrier) 09 Aug 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04179448v1
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[hal-03133130] Rainbow trout discriminate 2-D photographs of conspecifics from distracting stimuli using an innovative operant conditioning device
Cognitive abilities were studied in rainbow trout, the first continental fish production in Europe. Increasing public concern for the welfare of farmed-fish species highlighted the need for better knowledge of the cognitive status of fish. We trained and tested 15 rainbow trout with an operant conditioning device composed of self-feeders positioned in front of visual stimuli displayed on a screen. The device was coupled with a two-alternative forced-choice (2-AFC) paradigm to test whether rainbow trout can discriminate 2-D photographs of conspecifics (S+) from different visual stimuli (S-). The S- were applied in four stages, the last three stages representing increasing discrimination difficulty: (1) blue shapes; (2) black shape (star); (3) photograph of an object (among a pool of 60); (4) photograph of another fish species (among a pool of 60). Nine fish (out of 15) correctly managed to activate the conditioning device after 30–150 trials. The rainbow trout were able to discriminate images of conspecifics from an abstract shape (five individuals out of five) or objects (four out of five) but not from other fish species. Their ability to learn the category "fish shape" rather than distinguishing between conspecifics and heterospecifics is discussed. The successful visual discrimination task using this complex operant conditioning device is particularly remarkable and novel for this farmed-fish species, and could be exploited to develop cognitive enrichments in future farming systems. This device can also be added to the existing repertoire of testing devices suitable for investigating cognitive abilities in fish.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Aude Kleiber) 20 Apr 2023
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03133130v1
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[hal-03364095] Horses are sensitive to baby talk: pet-directed speech facilitates communication with humans in a pointing task and during grooming
Pet-directed speech (PDS) is a type of speech humans spontaneously use with their companion animals. It is very similar to speech commonly used when talking to babies. A survey on social media showed that 92.7% of the respondents used PDS with their horse, but only 44.4% thought that their horse was sensitive to it, and the others did not know or doubted its efficacy. We, therefore, decided to test the impact of PDS on two tasks. During a grooming task that consisted of the experimenter scratching the horse with their hand, the horses (n = 20) carried out significantly more mutual grooming gestures toward the experimenter, looked at the person more, and moved less when spoken to with PDS than with Adult-directed speech (ADS). During a pointing task in which the experimenter pointed at the location of a reward with their finger, horses who had been spoken to with PDS (n = 10) found the food significantly more often than chance, which was not the case when horses were spoken to with ADS (n = 10). These results thus indicate that horses, like certain non-human primates and dogs are sensitive to PDS. PDS could thus foster communication between people and horses during everyday interactions.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Léa Lansade) 04 Oct 2021
https://hal.science/hal-03364095v1
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[hal-03514328] How can the research on chicken cognition improve chicken welfare: a perspective review
A recent definition of animal welfare states that "the welfare of an animal is its positive mental and physical state related to the fulfilment of its physiological and behavioural needs in addition to its expectations. This state can vary depending on the animal's perception of a given situation'. This definition confirms the importance of taking the individual animal perspective (i.e. its cognition) into consideration, in order to properly assess its welfare. Cognitive abilities of domestic chickens have been extensively studied in recent years, but few of these studies focussed on the relationship between chicken cognition and welfare issues commonly found in chicken production systems. Considering the chickens' cognitive abilities offers new and different perspectives on the welfare problems faced by chicken production. Combined with applied research, cognitive studies can generate impactful and science-based strategies to solve these problems better. In this short non-systematic review, we focus on cognitive research aimed at understanding three widespread welfare issues in poultry production: uneven range use in free-range broiler chickens and laying hens, feather pecking in laying hens, and the unfulfilled behavioural and physiological needs of broiler breeders. Knowledge of chicken cognitive abilities is critical to ameliorate chickens' rearing conditions and develop systems and practices that are more respectful of animal welfare.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (V. H.B. Ferreira) 06 Jan 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03514328v1
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[hal-03207748] Loss of light colour preference after chronic embryonic stress in rainbow trout fry: a novel and potential indicator of fish welfare?
For many fish species, environmental colour may act either as a source of stress or as a stress-buffer, alleviating behavioural and physiological responses after a stressful situation. While much is known on the effects of environmental colour on fish stress parameters, knowledge on the effects of stress on fish colour preferences is still lacking. In order to test the effects of stress on colour preference in fish, in this work, we exposed rainbow trout embryos (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to stressful conditions (air exposure, pheromone alarm cue or control, with minimal stress) from 19 to 44 days post fertilization (dpf). They were then raised up to 56 dpf in bright, dark, green or blue environments. After that, fry were individually tested for colour preference in a three-chambered arena where they could choose between green and blue areas. The time spent in the blue and in the green chamber was compared between experimental groups. Rainbow trout fry exposed to minimal stress (control) or to biotic stress (pheromone alarm) showed increased time in the blue environment, with little effect of ambient colour where they were raised. However, fish that experienced air exposure stress showed a lack of colour preference irrespective of the colour they were raised in afterwards. These results imply that early life stress affects colour preference in rainbow trout, suggesting that abiotic stressors, such as air exposure, may affect colour perception or behavioural plasticity in young fish. If the results presented herein are corroborated by future studies in fish at different life stages, beyond the embryonic phase, colour preference tests may be used as an additional and potential welfare indicator to estimate, in a retrospective manner, which stressors were faced by the individuals during early stages. By knowing whether or not their fish were exposed to certain stressful conditions may allow farmers to better adapt fish rearing conditions and to implement strategies that alleviate any long-term impacts that may exist, and, therefore, improve fish welfare.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Violaine Colson) 08 Jul 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03207748v1
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[hal-03369464] Training level reveals a dynamic dialogue between stress and memory systems in birds
Chronic stress profoundly affects forms of declarative memory, such as spatial memory, while it may spare nondeclarative memory, such as cue-based memory. It is known, however, that the effects of chronic stress on memory systems may vary according to the level of training of an individual was submitted. Here, we investigated, in birds, how chronic stress impact spatial and cue-based memories according to training level. For that, control and chronically stressed Japanese quail were trained in a task that could be solved using spatial and cuebased memory and tested for their memory performance after 5 and 15 training days (initial training and overtraining, respectively) and following an emotional challenge (exposure to an open field). Our results showed that, compared to control quail, chronic stress impacted negatively spatial memory performances in stressed birds after initial training, but these differences were lowered after overtraining. Control birds seemed to shift from spatial to cue-based memory to solve the task across overtraining. However, an emotional challenge before testing reinstated the negative impact of chronic stress on spatial memory performances between the groups, revealing that chronic stress/overtraining did not eliminate the spatial memory and differences caused by stressors can reemerge depending on the individual?s immediate psychological state. Contrary to spatial memory, cue-based memory was not affected in chronically stressed birds compared to control birds in any test occasion, confirming its resistance against the negative effects of chronic stress. Altogether these findings reveal a dynamic dialogue between stress, training level, and memory systems in birds.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Flore Lormant) 23 Aug 2023
https://hal.science/hal-03369464v1
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[hal-03173757] Working for food is related to range use in free-range broiler chickens
When animals prefer to make efforts to obtain food instead of acquiring it from freely available sources, they exhibit what is called contrafreeloading. Recently, individual differences in behavior, such as exploration, were shown to be linked to how prone an individual may be to contrafreeload. In this work, our main objective was to test whether and how individual differences in range use of free-range broiler chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) were related to the individual motivation to contrafreeload. We also verified whether other behavioral variations could relate to range use. To that aim, over three different periods (before range access, first weeks of range access, and last weeks of range access), chickens with different ranging levels (low and high rangers) were submitted to a contrafreeloading test and had different behaviors recorded (such as foraging, resting, locomotion) in their home environment. During the contrafreeloading test, chickens were conditioned to one chamber presenting a foraging substrate and mealworms, while in the other chamber, mealworms were freely available on the floor. During testing trials, chickens had access to both empty chambers, and the time spent in each chamber was quantified. On average, low rangers preferred the chamber where mealworms were easily accessible (without the foraging substrate), while high rangers preferred the chamber where mealworms were accessible with difficulty, showing greater contrafreeloading. Out of ten behaviors recorded in chickens' home environment, foraging was the only one that differed significantly between our two ranging groups, with low rangers foraging, on average, significantly less than high rangers. These results corroborate previous experiences suggesting that range use is probably linked to chickens' exploratory trait and suggest that individual differences in free-range broiler chickens are present even before range access. Increasing our knowledge of individual particularities is a necessary step to improve free-range chicken welfare on the farm.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 18 Mar 2021
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03173757v1
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[hal-02550414] Female horses spontaneously identify a photograph of their keeper, last seen six months previously
Horses are capable of identifying individual conspecifics based on olfactory, auditory or visual cues. However, this raises the questions of their ability to recognize human beings and on the basis of what cues. This study investigated whether horses could differentiate between a familiar and unfamiliar human from photographs of faces. Eleven horses were trained on a discrimination task using a computer-controlled screen, on which two photographs were presented simultaneously (32 trials/ session): touching one was rewarded (S+) and the other not (S−). In the training phase, the S+ faces were of four unfamiliar people which gradually became familiar over the trials. The S− faces were novel for each trial. After the training phase, the faces of the horses’ keepers were presented opposite novel faces to test whether the horses could identify the former spontaneously. A reward was given whichever face was touched to avoid any possible learning effect. Horses touched the faces of keepers significantly more than chance, whether it was their current keeper or one they had not seen for six months (t = 3.65; p < 0.004 and t = 6.24; p < 0.0001). Overall, these results show that horses have advanced human facerecognition abilities and a long-term memory of those human faces.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Léa Lansade) 03 Dec 2020
https://hal.science/hal-02550414v1
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[hal-02937496] Emotionality modulates the impact of chronic stress on memory and neurogenesis in birds
Chronic stress is a strong modulator of cognitive processes, such as learning and memory. There is, however, great within-individual variation in how an animal perceives and reacts to stressors. These differences in coping with stress modulate the development of stress-induced memory alterations. The present study investigated whether and how chronic stress and individual emotionality interrelate and influence memory performances and brain neurogenesis in birds. For that, we used two lines of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) with divergent emotionality levels. Highly (E+) and less (E−) emotional quail were submitted to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) for 3 weeks and trained in a spatial task and a discrimination task, a form of cue-based memory. E + and E− birds were also used to assess the impact of CUS and emotionality on neurogenesis within the hippocampus and the striatum. CUS negatively impacted spatial memory, and cell proliferation, and survival in the hippocampus. High emotionality was associated with a decreased hippocampal neurogenesis. CUS improved discrimination performances and favored the differentiation of newborn cells into mature neurons in the striatum, specifically in E+ birds. Our results provide evidence that CUS consequences on memory and neural plasticity depends both on the memory system and individual differences in behavior.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Flore Lormant) 14 Sep 2020
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02937496v1
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[hal-02993349] Horses Solve Visible but Not Invisible Displacement Tasks in an Object Permanence Paradigm
A key question in the field of animal cognition is how animals comprehend their physical world. Object permanence is one of the fundamental features of physical cognition. It is the ability to reason about hidden objects and to mentally reconstruct their invisible displacements. This cognitive skill has been studied in a wide range of species but never directly in the horse (Equus caballus). In this study, we therefore assessed the understanding of visible and invisible displacements in adult Welsh mares in two complementary experiments, using different horses. In experiment 1, visible displacement was investigated using two tasks adapted from the Uzgiris and Hunt scale 1. Invisible displacement was assessed using a transposition task, in which food was first hidden in one of two containers and the location of the containers was then switched. In experiment 2, we further investigated horses' understanding of visible and invisible displacements using an easier procedure designed to avoid potentially confounding factors. In both experiments, horses successfully completed the tasks involving visible displacement with two or three possible hiding places. However, in both experiments, horses failed the transposition tasks, suggesting that they may not be able to track the displacement of an object that is not directly perceived (i.e., invisible displacement). These results bring new insights into object permanence in horses and how they represent their physical world.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Miléna Trösch) 06 Nov 2020
https://hal.science/hal-02993349v1
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[hal-03151453] Human face recognition in horses: data in favor of a holistic process
Recent studies have demonstrated that horses can recognize humans based simply on visual information. However, none of these studies have investigated whether this involves the recognition of the face itself, or simply identifying people from non-complex external clues, such as hair color. To go beyond this we wanted to know whether certain features of the face were indispensable for this recognition (e.g., colors, hair or eyes). The 11 horses in this study had previously learned to identify four unfamiliar faces (portrait view and in color) presented repeatedly on a screen. We thus assessed whether they were able to identify these same faces spontaneously when they were presented in four other conditions: profile view, black and white, eyes hidden, changed hairstyle. The horses' performances remained higher than chance level for all the conditions. In a choice test under real conditions, they then approached the people whose face they had learned more often than unknown people. In conclusion, when considering all the individuals studied, no single facial element that we tested appears to be essential for recognition, suggesting holistic processing in face recognition. That means horses do not base their recognition solely on an easy clue such as hair color. They can also link faces from photographs with people in real life, indicating that horses do not process images of faces as simple abstract shapes.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Léa Lansade) 24 Feb 2021
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03151453v1
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[hal-02993355] Unwilling or willing but unable: can horses interpret human actions as goal directed?
Social animals can gain important benefits by inferring the goals behind the behavior of others. However, this ability has only been investigated in a handful of species outside of primates. In this study, we tested for the first time whether domestic horses can interpret human actions as goal directed. We used the classical "unwilling versus unable" paradigm: an experimenter performed three similar actions that have the same outcome, but the goal of the experimenter differed. In the unwilling condition, the experimenter had no intention to give a piece of food to a horse and moved it out of reach when the horse tried to eat it. In the two unable conditions, the experimenter had the intention to give the food to the horse but was unable to do so, either because there was a physical barrier between them or because of the experimenter's clumsiness. The horses (n = 21) reacted differently in the three conditions: they showed more interest in the unable conditions, especially in the unable clumsy condition, than in the unwilling condition. These results are similar to results found in primates with the same paradigm and suggest that horses might have taken the experimenter's goal, or even intentions, into account to adapt their behavior. Hence, our study offers more insights into horse interspecific social cognition towards humans.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Miléna Trösch) 15 Dec 2020
https://hal.science/hal-02993355v1
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[hal-03140110] Range use is related to free-range broiler chickens’ behavioral responses during food and social conditioned place preference tests
Free-range broiler chickens usually show an uneven spatial utilization of an outdoor range. Due to behavioral and cognitive between-individual differences, some animals may be driven to associate food and conspecifics more strongly to the barn, causing them to be less prone to explore the range. In this study, we aimed to understand how broiler chickens with different ranging levels (low- and high-ranging chickens) would behave under conditioned place preference (CPP) test situations. We used two cohorts conditioned to two natural rewarding stimuli: food and social companions. In a two-chambered apparatus, one cohort (n = 31, 16 high-ranging, and 15 low-ranging chickens) was conditioned to one chamber that always contained a cup with a food reward (mealworms), while the cup in the other chamber was always empty. The same design was also used with the second cohort (n = 31, 15 high-ranging and 16 low-ranging chickens), although instead of food, the reward was the physical presence of two conspecifics. During the testing trials, the animals had access to both empty chambers, and the time spent in each chamber was quantified. For the first day of the food CPP test, both the high- and low-ranging chickens spent significantly more time in the conditioned chamber, where they had previously found mealworms. During the following extinction days, the animals showed a gradual loss of their learned preference, increasing their immobility in the apparatus. High-ranging chickens were more immobile than low-ranging chickens, however, as their number of trials without moving was significantly higher. Unexpectedly, during the first day of the social CPP test, only high-ranging chickens showed a place preference. An overall place preference was observed only on the second day, with no chamber preference during the extinction days. Our results suggest that whether and how a stimulus-reward association occurs for free-range chickens may also be dependent on individual differences and the nature of the reward (food or social). Since associative learning occurs on a daily basis for farmed animals and the way individuals learn or value the reward varies, this research advanced our knowledge of animal behavior and individual cognitive differences that can be highly beneficial in improving animals' living conditions; this new understanding will allow for a more individualized approach to rearing broiler chickens in outdoor systems.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 22 Aug 2022
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03140110v1
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[hal-03140125] Social motivation and the use of distal, but not local, featural cues are related to ranging behavior in free-range chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Animals can navigate an environment relying on different sources of information, such as geometrical or featural cues. The favoring of one type of information over another depends on multiple factors, such as inter-individual differences in behavior and cognition. Free-range chickens present different range use patterns, which may be explained by behavioral and cognitive differences. However, how behavior, cognition, and range use intercorrelate is still poorly understood. In this work, we aimed to further understand possible differences in behavior and cognition between two groups of free-range broiler chickens: those who frequently explore their range ('high rangers') and those who prefer to stay in or near the barn ('low rangers'). Prior to range access, individual behavior was measured in open field-, emergence-, and social motivation tests. To investigate cognitive differences, we analyzed whether exploratory behavior was linked to different performances in the use of distal and local spatial cues during an orientation task. During the social motivation test, low rangers showed a higher inclination to be near conspecifics than did high rangers. Our orientation tests show that chickens preferred to orientate themselves using the local cues over the distal cues. Individual differences were only found for distal, but not for local, cue use suggesting that demanding tasks are more efficient in revealing individual cognitive differences. Our results suggest that considering variation in social motivation may allow a more comprehensive understanding of chicken range use. Our results also support the importance of incorporating multiple aspects of individual differences to understand individual reactions to its environment.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 12 Feb 2021
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03140125v1
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[hal-03038684] Horses feel emotions when they watch positive and negative horse–human interactions in a video and transpose what they saw to real life
Animals can indirectly gather meaningful information about other individuals by eavesdropping on their third-party interactions. In particular, eavesdropping can be used to indirectly attribute a negative or positive valence to an individual and to adjust one’s future behavior towards that individual. Few studies have focused on this ability in nonhuman animals, especially in nonprimate species. Here, we investigated this ability for the first time in domestic horses (Equus caballus) by projecting videos of positive and negative interactions between an unknown human experimenter (a “positive” experimenter or a “negative” experimenter) and an actor horse. The horses reacted emotionally while watching the videos, expressing behavioral (facial expressions and contact-seeking behavior) and physiological (heart rate) cues of positive emotions while watching the positive video and of negative emotions while watching the negative video. This result shows that the horses perceived the content of the videos and suggests an emotional contagion between the actor horse and the subjects. After the videos were projected, the horses took a choice test, facing the positive and negative experimenters in real life. The horses successfully used the interactions seen in the videos to discriminate between the experimenters. They touched the negative experimenter significantly more, which seems counterintuitive but can be interpreted as an appeasement attempt, based on the existing literature. This result suggests that horses can indirectly attribute a valence to a human experimenter by eavesdropping on a previous third-party interaction with a conspecific.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Miléna Trösch) 03 Dec 2020
https://hal.science/hal-03038684v1
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[hal-02622887] Uninhibited chickens: ranging behaviour impacts motor self-regulation in free-range broiler chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Inhibiting impulsive, less flexible behaviours is of utmost importance for individual adaptation in an ever-changing environment. However, problem-solving tasks may be greatly impacted by individual differences in behaviour, since animals with distinct behavioural types perceive and interact with their environment differently, resulting in variable responses to the same stimuli. Here, we tested whether and how differences in ranging behaviour of free-range chickens affect motor self-regulation performance during a cylinder task. For this task, subjects must refrain from trying to reach a food reward through the walls of a transparent cylinder and detour to its open sides, as a sign of inhibition. Free-range chickens exhibited an overall low performance in the motor self-regulation task (31.33 +/- 13.55% of correct responses), however, high rangers showed significantly poorer performance than the low rangers (23.75 +/- 9.16% versus 40 +/- 12.90%, respectively). These results give further support to the impacts of individual behavioural differences on cognitive performances. This is the first demonstration to our knowledge of a relationship between exploratory tendencies and motor self-regulation for an avian species.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira) 26 May 2020
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02622887v1
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[hal-02437641] Object and food novelty induce distinct patterns of c-fos immunoreactivity in amygdala and striatum in domestic male chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus)
Avoidance of novelty, termed neophobia, protects animals from potential dangers but can also impair their adaptation to novel environments or food resources. This behaviour is particularly well described in birds but the neurobiological correlates remain unexplored. Here, we measured neuronal activity in the amygdala and the striatum, two brain regions believed to be involved in novelty detection, by labelling the early gene c-fos following chicks exposure to a novel food (NF), a novel object (NO) or a familiar food (FF). NF and NO chicks showed significantly longer latencies to touch the food, less time eating and emitted more fear-vocalizations than control chicks. Latency to touch the food was also longer for NO than for NF chicks. Significantly higher densities of c-fos positive cells were present in all the nuclei of the arcopallium/amygdala of NF and NO chicks compared to FF chicks. Also, NO chicks showed higher positive cell densities than NF chicks in the posterior amygdaloid, the intermediate and the medial arcopallium. Exposure to novel food or object induced a similar increase in c-fos expression in the nucleus accumbens and the medial striatum. Our data provide evidence activation of the arcopallium/amygdala is specific of the type of novelty. The activation of striatum may be more related to novelty seeking.
ano.nymous@ccsd.cnrs.fr.invalid (Emilie C Perez) 21 Jul 2022
https://hal.science/hal-02437641v1
