A Snapshot seminar hosted by the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience

Hinchliffe Profile & Zappia Profile

Hinchcliffe abstract: A better understanding of animal emotions and the ability to quantify their affective state reliably is critical for research in many fields, from modelling symptoms of affective disorders in rodents to measuring their welfare in the laboratory environment. Conventional methods for assessing the emotional states in rodents lack specificity, and sensitivity and can demonstrate a low translational value. Over the years, we have worked to develop, optimise and validate affective biases methodology to quantify emotional states in rodents objectively, and how these assays can be utilised to ask novel welfare questions regarding handling techniques, housing e.g. use of playpens, and the impact of cross-species emotional contagion. In this talk, I will show how rats' ultrasonic vocalisations, especially 50kHz calls, and their further validation can provide a simple and graded measure of positive affect in laboratory rodents.