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Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep

Humans and animals show increased attention towards threatening stimuli when they are in increased states of anxiety. The few animal studies that have examined this phenomenon, known as attention bias, have applied environmental manipulations to induce anxiety but the effects of drug-induced anxiety...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lee, Caroline, Verbeek, Else, Doyle, Rebecca, Bateson, Melissa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4938034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27277950
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0977
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author Lee, Caroline
Verbeek, Else
Doyle, Rebecca
Bateson, Melissa
author_facet Lee, Caroline
Verbeek, Else
Doyle, Rebecca
Bateson, Melissa
author_sort Lee, Caroline
collection PubMed
description Humans and animals show increased attention towards threatening stimuli when they are in increased states of anxiety. The few animal studies that have examined this phenomenon, known as attention bias, have applied environmental manipulations to induce anxiety but the effects of drug-induced anxiety levels on attention bias have not been demonstrated. Here, we present an attention bias test to identify high and low anxiety states in sheep using pharmacological manipulation. Increased anxiety was induced using 1-methyl-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) and decreased anxiety with diazepam, and then we examined the behaviour of sheep in response to the presence of a dog as a threat. Increased attention towards the threat and increased vigilance were shown in sheep that received the m-CPP and reduced in sheep receiving the diazepam. The modulated attention towards a threat displayed by the m-CPP and diazepam animals suggests that attention bias can assess different levels of anxiety in sheep. Measuring attention bias has the potential to improve animal welfare assessment protocols.
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spelling pubmed-49380342016-07-15 Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep Lee, Caroline Verbeek, Else Doyle, Rebecca Bateson, Melissa Biol Lett Animal Behaviour Humans and animals show increased attention towards threatening stimuli when they are in increased states of anxiety. The few animal studies that have examined this phenomenon, known as attention bias, have applied environmental manipulations to induce anxiety but the effects of drug-induced anxiety levels on attention bias have not been demonstrated. Here, we present an attention bias test to identify high and low anxiety states in sheep using pharmacological manipulation. Increased anxiety was induced using 1-methyl-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) and decreased anxiety with diazepam, and then we examined the behaviour of sheep in response to the presence of a dog as a threat. Increased attention towards the threat and increased vigilance were shown in sheep that received the m-CPP and reduced in sheep receiving the diazepam. The modulated attention towards a threat displayed by the m-CPP and diazepam animals suggests that attention bias can assess different levels of anxiety in sheep. Measuring attention bias has the potential to improve animal welfare assessment protocols. The Royal Society 2016-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4938034/ /pubmed/27277950 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0977 Text en © 2016 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Animal Behaviour
Lee, Caroline
Verbeek, Else
Doyle, Rebecca
Bateson, Melissa
Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title_full Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title_fullStr Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title_full_unstemmed Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title_short Attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
title_sort attention bias to threat indicates anxiety differences in sheep
topic Animal Behaviour
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4938034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27277950
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0977
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AT batesonmelissa attentionbiastothreatindicatesanxietydifferencesinsheep