scholarly journals Evaluation of miRNA as Biomarkers of Emotional Valence in Pigs

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2054
Author(s):  
Laura Marsh ◽  
Mark R. Hutchinson ◽  
Clive McLaughlan ◽  
Stefan T. Musolino ◽  
Michelle L. Hebart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Production Environment ◽  
Large White ◽  
Judgment Bias ◽  
Positive Affective State ◽  
The Brain

The ability to assess the welfare of animals is dependent on our ability to accurately determine their emotional (affective) state, with particular emphasis being placed on the identification of positive emotions. The challenge remains that current physiological and behavioral indices are either unable to distinguish between positive and negative emotional states, or they are simply not suitable for a production environment. Therefore, the development of novel measures of animal emotion is a necessity. Here we investigated the efficacy of microRNA (miRNA) in the brain and blood as biomarkers of emotional state in the pig. Female Large White × Landrace pigs (n = 24) were selected at weaning and trained to perform a judgment bias test (JBT), before being exposed for 5 weeks to either enriched (n = 12) or barren housing (n = 12) conditions. Pigs were tested on the JBT once prior to treatment, and immediately following treatment. MiRNA and neurotransmitters were analyzed in blood and brain tissue after euthanasia. Treatment had no effect on the outcomes of the JBT. There was also no effect of treatment on miRNA expression in blood or the brain (FDR p > 0.05). However, pigs exposed to enriched housing had elevated dopamine within the striatum compared to pigs in barren housing (p = 0.02). The results imply that either (a) miRNAs are not likely to be valid biomarkers of a positive affective state, at least under the type of conditions employed in this study, or (b) that the study design used to modify affective state was not able to create differential affective states, and therefore establish the validity of miRNA as biomarkers.

scholarly journals The Interpretation of E-Motions in Faces and Bodies Derived from Static Artworks by Individuals with High Functioning Autistic Spectrum

Vision ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Maria Elisa Della-Torre ◽  
Daniele Zavagno ◽  
Rossana Actis-Grosso
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Dynamic Component ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Similar Range

E-motions are defined as those affective states the expressions of which—conveyed either by static faces or body posture—embody a dynamic component and, consequently, convey a higher sense of dynamicity than other emotional expressions. An experiment is presented, aimed at testing whether e-motions are perceived as such also by individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), which have been associated with impairments in emotion recognition and in motion perception. To this aim we replicate with ASD individuals a study, originally conducted with typically developed individuals (TDs), in which we showed to both ASD and TD participants 14 bodiless heads and 14 headless bodies taken from eleven static artworks and four drawings. The Experiment was divided into two sessions. In Session 1 participants were asked to freely associate each stimulus to an emotion or an affective state (Task 1, option A); if they were unable to find a specific emotion, the experimenter showed them a list of eight possible emotions (words) and asked them to choose one from such list, that best described the affective state portrayed in the image (Task 1, option B). After their choice, they were asked to rate the intensity of the perceived emotion on a seven point Likert scale (Task 2). In Session 2 participants were requested to evaluate the degree of dynamicity conveyed by each stimulus on a 7 point Likert scale. Results showed that ASDs and TDs shared a similar range of verbal expressions defining emotions; however, ASDs (i) showed an impairment in the ability to spontaneously assign an emotion to a headless body, and (ii) they more frequently used terms denoting negative emotions (for both faces and bodies) as compared to neutral emotions, which in turn were more frequently used by TDs. No difference emerged between the two groups for positive emotions, with happiness being the emotion better recognized in both faces and in bodies. Although overall there are no significant differences between the two groups with respect to the emotions assigned to the images and the degree of perceived dynamicity, the interaction Artwork x Group showed that for some images ASDs assigned a different value than TDs to perceived dynamicity. Moreover, two images were interpreted by ASDs as conveying completely different emotions than those perceived by TDs. Results are discussed in light of the ability of ASDs to resolve ambiguity, and of possible different cognitive styles characterizing the aesthetical/emotional experience.

Analyzing Emotional Oscillatory Brain Network for Valence and Arousal-Based Emotion Recognition Using EEG Data

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
pp. 1359-1378
Author(s):  
Jianzhuo Yan ◽  
Hongzhi Kuai ◽  
Jianhui Chen ◽  
Ning Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Affective Computing ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Feature Selection Method ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Previous Method ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Valence And Arousal

Emotion recognition is a highly noteworthy and challenging work in both cognitive science and affective computing. Currently, neurobiology studies have revealed the partially synchronous oscillating phenomenon within brain, which needs to be analyzed from oscillatory synchronization. This combination of oscillations and synchronism is worthy of further exploration to achieve inspiring learning of the emotion recognition models. In this paper, we propose a novel approach of valence and arousal-based emotion recognition using EEG data. First, we construct the emotional oscillatory brain network (EOBN) inspired by the partially synchronous oscillating phenomenon for emotional valence and arousal. And then, a coefficient of variation and Welch’s [Formula: see text]-test based feature selection method is used to identify the core pattern (cEOBN) within EOBN for different emotional dimensions. Finally, an emotional recognition model (ERM) is built by combining cEOBN-inspired information obtained in the above process and different classifiers. The proposed approach can combine oscillation and synchronization characteristics of multi-channel EEG signals for recognizing different emotional states under the valence and arousal dimensions. The cEOBN-based inspired information can effectively reduce the dimensionality of the data. The experimental results show that the previous method can be used to detect affective state at a reasonable level of accuracy.

scholarly journals Are Behavioral Tests Capable of Measuring Positive Affective States in Growing Pigs?

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Krugmann ◽  
Farina Warnken ◽  
Joachim Krieter ◽  
Irena Czycholl
Keyword(s):  
Affective State ◽  
Growing Pigs ◽  
Behavioral Tests ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Novel Object ◽  
Housing Systems ◽  
Positive Affective State ◽  
Fattening Pigs

This study examined whether the human approach test (HAT) or novel object test (NOT), which are considered as suitable tests for assessing the level of fear or anxiety in animals, are suitable to detect a positive affective state in 297 fattening pigs from three different farms. The investigated farms consisted of a barren (farm 1, n = 160) and an enriched (farm 2, n = 106; farm 3, n = 31) husbandry. Each pig was subjected three times to the HAT and NOT during fattening (at the start, middle, and end of fattening). The pigs housed in the barren environment showed quicker approach latencies than the enriched-housed pigs (HAT: farm 1: 7.4 ± 1.1 s vs. farm 2: 57.1 ± 1.1 s, respectively, farm 3: 58.3 ± 1.3 s (end of fattening); NOT: farm 1: 4.5 ± 1.1 s vs. farm 2: 23.0 ± 1.1 s, respectively, farm 3: 9.0 ± 1.2 s (end of fattening)). The same pattern of behavior was observed for the duration of contacts in the HAT but not in the NOT (HAT: farm 1: 83.8 ± 1.1 s vs. farm 2: 6.3 ± 1.1 s, respectively, farm 3: 7.6 ± 1.3 s (end of fattening)). However, due to controversially discussed literature, it is difficult to conclude whether the described differences in the pigs’ behavior between the two housing systems might indicate useful indicators to detect their affective state.

scholarly journals Affective States and Performance Outcomes – The Findings of Preliminary Research Involving Pentathletes

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Samełko ◽  
Monika Guszkowska
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Mood State ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
State Variables ◽  
And Performance ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Introduction. The aim of this article is to discuss the relationship between affective states experienced by athletes and the outcome of their performance. The article presents the findings of a pilot study which made it possible to determine the relationship between the emotional states, mood, and level of stress of a group of pentathletes and the outcomes they achieved in a sports competition. Material and methods. The study involved 12 senior modern pentathletes, including 7 male and 5 female athletes. The following standard psychology questionnaires were used in the study: the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Profile of Mood State (POMS). Performance was assessed based on the number of points achieved by the pentathletes in particular events in the pentathlon, which are held according to the rules set by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). Results. The findings of the study confirmed that there was a correlation between the athletes’ mood and emotions and the outcome of their performance. The level of stress strongly negatively correlated with both the outcome they expected to achieve and the one they actually achieved for the combined event (running and shooting). For this event a relationship was also found between the athletes’ affective states and their outcomes: in running and shooting there was a positive and statistically significant correlation between the level of positive emotions and anger and the results achieved. However, friendliness, one of the other affective state variables that were measured, correlated negatively with the outcomes of the athletes’ performance. Conclusions. In the group of pentathletes who participated in the study, a high level of anger was associated with better outcomes, and a high level of friendliness had an adverse effect on the results achieved. The findings of the current study confirm that there is a relationship between affective states and performance outcomes, but the findings do not correspond with Morgan’s iceberg profile.

scholarly journals Affective States Influence Sport Performance in Swimming

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Samełko ◽  
Monika Guszkowska ◽  
Anna Gala-Kwiatkowska
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
National Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotional Awareness ◽  
Substantial Effect ◽  
Sport Performance ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Sports Activity

Abstract Introduction. Sports activity involves experiencing affective states, which have a substantial effect on actions taken by the athlete. The results of previous studies on the relationship between emotional states and sport performance outcomes are ambiguous. The aim of the study was to establish the relationships between affective states (both emotional states and moods) and performance in swimming. Material and methods. The study examined 9 female swimmers and 22 male swimmers competing at the national level aged from 15 to 23 years (M = 18.1; SD = 2.397). Affective states were evaluated by means of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) completed once a day before the competition and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) completed before each race. The subject’s life record was divided by the time obtained in each race and expressed as a percentage. Results. Immediately before the races where the best results were obtained, the swimmers experienced the strongest positive emotions and the lowest level of negative emotions. The lowest level of positive states was recorded before the races with the worst performance. The lower the level of negative moods (fatigue, depression, anger, and tension) and the higher the level of positive moods (vigour and kindness) were, the better the results obtained by swimmers were. One exception was confusion, which unexpectedly correlated positively with the swimmers’ results. Preliminary analyses showed no indication of statistically significant differences between the women and men surveyed. Conclusions. The results of the study suggest that affective states influence performance outcomes in swimming. This influence may vary according to the valence and content as well as duration of affective states (emotional states vs. mood). On the basis of the results obtained, guidelines for coaches and their athletes can be formulated. A properly prepared trainer can choose training tasks in such a way as to optimise the intensity and content of the emotions experienced by athletes. Emotions seem to be important not only with regard to athletes’ well-being, but also as indirect and direct predictors of the results they achieve. Expression of emotion and emotional awareness in persons connected with sport should be included in training work.

scholarly journals Use of cognitive bias as a welfare tool in poultry

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S63-S79
Author(s):  
Ľubor Košťál ◽  
Zuzana Skalná ◽  
Katarína Pichová
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Training ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Straight Alley ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Environmental Complexity ◽  
Judgment Bias

Abstract In human psychology, the link between cognition and emotions is broadly accepted. However, the idea of using the interaction between cognition and emotions as a tool for a better understanding of animal emotions or for welfare assessment is relatively new. The first avian species used in cognitive bias tests was the European starling followed by the domestic chicken and other species. The most frequently used paradigm is the affect-induced judgment bias. There are many variations of the judgment bias tests in birds. The test itself is preceded by discrimination training. Discrimination tasks vary from visual cue discrimination, discrimination of time intervals to spatial location discrimination. During the discrimination training, birds flip or do not flip the lids of the food dishes, and their latency to approach the cues in a straight alley maze, in a two-choice arena, or different locations in spatial judgment task arena are measured. Alternately, the birds fulfill operant tasks in a Skinner box. Before or after the discrimination training phase, birds are subjected to manipulations that are hypothesized to induce positive or negative emotional states. In the last stage, birds are subjected to judgment bias tests. The assumption is that animals in a negative affective state would more likely respond to ambiguous cues, as if they predict the negative event, than animals in a more positive state. However, the results of some avian studies are inconsistent, particularly those studying the effect of environmental enrichment. In starlings, each of the three studies has supplied conflicting results. In poultry, none of the four studies demonstrated a positive effect of environmental enrichment on emotional states. Only the study using unpredictable stressors in combination with environmental complexity showed that animals kept in a more complex environment are more optimistic. Manipulation of the social environment seems to be more effective in judgment bias induction. Conflicting results could be attributable to the design of the tests, the manner of affect induction, or the data analysis. Further optimization and validation of avian cognitive bias tests could help to avoid problems such as the loss of ambiguity. New methods of attention and memory bias testing are promising. However, regardless of the abovementioned complications, a cognitive bias paradigm is a valuable tool, which can help us better understand avian emotions and assess poultry welfare.

scholarly journals Effects of Affective State on Episodic Memory Retrieval

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Asheek Mohammad Shimul ◽  
Md Rakibuil Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Immediate Recall ◽  
Neutral Mood ◽  
Healthy Participants

Attention Readers and Researchers "PDF version of this article has been modified two to three times due to problems with one figure and with missing words in the title. The final version of the PDF was last updated on September 27, 2014. We apologise for the inconvenience this might cause."AbstractThe role of emotion in memory recollection has been an arguable issue for a decade. Episodic memory is very triggering in our day to day life and so as our affective states. Present study was conducted to see whether positive, negative and neutral emotional states (affective states) have any effect in recollecting emotion congruent or incongruent episodic memory. Words of positive, negative, or neutral were presented to the participants either in positive, negative, or neutral mood and immediate recall was used in this present experiment. It was hypothesized that congruent mood would enhance better episodic memory recollection than incongruent mood. A total of 36 adult healthy participants were selected for this experiment following an incidental sampling techniques and they were divided into two contrasting groups namely, congruent and incongruent following purely on the basis of chance. Phases of stimulus presentations were counterbalanced. Different images were used to manipulate affective states of the respondents, and different positive (18 words), negative (18 words) and neutral (18 words) words were used as stimulus. Results were analyzed using paired t test. Results revealed that negative mood enhance negative word retrieval (t = 2.159, p <0.05) but not positive words. Findings were discussed in the light of current theories of episodic memory recollection. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbayr.v2i1.20536 Journal of the Bangladesh Association of Young Researchers (JBAYR): Vol.2(1), 2012 & 2013: 1-8

scholarly journals Assessing Affective State in Laboratory Rodents to Promote Animal Welfare—What Is the Progress in Applied Refinement Research?

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulin Jirkof ◽  
Juliane Rudeck ◽  
Lars Lewejohann
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Laboratory Rodents ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
Negative Affective States

An animal’s capacity to suffer is a prerequisite for any animal welfare concern, and the minimization of suffering is a key aim of refinement research. In contrast to the traditional focus on avoiding or reducing negative welfare states, modern animal welfare concepts highlight the importance of promoting positive welfare states in laboratory animals. Reliable assessments of affective states, as well as the knowledge of how to elicit positive affective states, are central to this concept. Important achievements have been made to assess pain and other negative affective states in animals in the last decades, but it is only recently that the neurobiology of positive emotions in humans and animals has been gaining more interest. Thereby, the need for promotion of positive affective states for laboratory animals is gaining more acceptance, and methods allowing the assessment of affective states in animals have been increasingly introduced. In this overview article, we present common and emerging methods to assess affective states in laboratory rodents. We focus on the implementation of these methods into applied refinement research to identify achieved progress as well as the future potential of these tools to improve animal welfare in animal-based research.

scholarly journals Cancer blues? A validated judgment bias task suggests pessimism in nude mice with tumors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Resasco ◽  
A. MacLellan ◽  
M. A. Ayala ◽  
L. Kitchenham ◽  
A. M. Edwards ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nude Mice ◽  
Construct Validation ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Laboratory Mice ◽  
Ambiguous Information ◽  
Judgment Bias ◽  
Tumor Bearing ◽  
Judgment Biases ◽  
Lung Adenocarcinomas

AbstractIn humans, affective states can bias responses to ambiguous information: a phenomenon termed judgment bias (JB). Judgment biases have great potential for assessing affective states in animals, in both animal welfare and biomedical research. New animal JB tasks require construct validation, but for laboratory mice (Mus musculus), the most common research vertebrate, a valid JB task has proved elusive. Here (Experiment 1), we demonstrate construct validity for a novel mouse JB test: an olfactory Go/Go task in which subjects dig for high- or low-value food rewards. In C57BL/6 and Balb/c mice faced with ambiguous cues, latencies to dig were sensitive to high/low welfare housing, environmentally-enriched animals responding with relative ‘optimism’ through shorter latencies. Illustrating the versatility of a validated JB task across fields of research, it further allowed us to test hypotheses about the mood-altering effects of cancer (Experiment 2). Male nude mice bearing subcutaneous lung adenocarcinomas responded more pessimistically than healthy controls to ambiguous cues. Similar effects were not seen in females, however. To our knowledge, this is the first validation of a mouse JB task and the first demonstration of pessimism in tumor-bearing animals. This task, especially if refined to improve its sensitivity, thus has great potential for investigating mouse welfare, the links between affective state and disease, depression-like states in animals, and hypotheses regarding the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie affect-mediated biases in judgment.

scholarly journals Multimodal Affective State Assessment Using fNIRS + EEG and Spontaneous Facial Expression

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanjia Sun ◽  
Hasan Ayaz ◽  
Ali N. Akansu
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Affective State ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Eeg Signals ◽  
Image Content ◽  
Affective Expressions

Human facial expressions are regarded as a vital indicator of one’s emotion and intention, and even reveal the state of health and wellbeing. Emotional states have been associated with information processing within and between subcortical and cortical areas of the brain, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. In this study, we evaluated the relationship between spontaneous human facial affective expressions and multi-modal brain activity measured via non-invasive and wearable sensors: functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) signals. The affective states of twelve male participants detected via fNIRS, EEG, and spontaneous facial expressions were investigated in response to both image-content stimuli and video-content stimuli. We propose a method to jointly evaluate fNIRS and EEG signals for affective state detection (emotional valence as positive or negative). Experimental results reveal a strong correlation between spontaneous facial affective expressions and the perceived emotional valence. Moreover, the affective states were estimated by the fNIRS, EEG, and fNIRS + EEG brain activity measurements. We show that the proposed EEG + fNIRS hybrid method outperforms fNIRS-only and EEG-only approaches. Our findings indicate that the dynamic (video-content based) stimuli triggers a larger affective response than the static (image-content based) stimuli. These findings also suggest joint utilization of facial expression and wearable neuroimaging, fNIRS, and EEG, for improved emotional analysis and affective brain–computer interface applications.

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