Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive bias in rats
Environmental enrichment induces optimistic cognitive bias in rats
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DOI：
10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.030
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Bateson, Melissa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brydges, Nichola M.;Leach, Matthew;Bateson, Melissa
人们的情感或情绪状态可以改变他们的认知过程，对模棱两可的刺激做出有偏见的解释。那些处于更积极状态的人比那些处于消极状态的人更乐观地解释这些刺激。最近，这项研究已经扩展到动物，并已表明，与负面影响相关的操纵导致动物更悲观地解释模糊的刺激。我们研究了是否暴露于丰富的环境产生乐观的反应，模棱两可的刺激。大鼠，褐家鼠，一种新的条件歧视任务，使他们学会了正确的反应，以获得食物奖励的刺激过程中存在的方法（粗糙或光滑的砂纸）。一种刺激与比另一种更高价值的奖励相关联。一旦老鼠接受训练，通过探索它们对模糊刺激（中级砂纸）的反应来探索认知偏差;如果老鼠选择了与更好的奖励相关的刺激相适应的反应，那么它被定义为乐观的。从未富集笼转移到富集笼的动物在变化后表现出更乐观的反应。保持在未富集笼中的对照组始终表现出悲观的反应。这些结果首次表明，丰富的环境可以诱导乐观的认知偏差，以前住在标准笼，可能表明一个更积极的情感状态的大鼠。这些结果增加了对测量认知偏差可以洞察动物情绪状态的建议的支持;这对动物福利和情绪障碍潜在疗法的临床前测试具有影响。(c)2010年，动物行为研究协会。由爱思唯尔有限公司出版。保留所有权利。
People's affective or emotional state can alter their cognitive processing, biasing interpretation of ambiguous stimuli. Those in a more positive state interpret such stimuli in a more optimistic manner than those in a negative state. Recently this research has extended to animals, and has shown that manipulations associated with negative affect cause animals to interpret ambiguous stimuli more pessimistically. We investigated whether exposure to environmental enrichment engenders optimistic responses to ambiguous stimuli. Rats, Rattus norvegicus, were trained on a novel conditional discrimination task whereby they learned the correct response necessary to obtain a food reward given the stimulus present during approach (rough or smooth sandpaper). One stimulus was associated with a higher-value reward than the other. Once the rats were trained, cognitive bias was probed by exploring their responses to an ambiguous stimulus (intermediate grade of sandpaper); a rat was defined as optimistic if it chose the response appropriate to the stimulus associated with the better reward. Animals transferred from unenriched to enriched cages showed more optimistic responses following the change. A control group maintained in unenriched cages showed pessimistic responses throughout. These results demonstrate for the first time that environmental enrichment can induce an optimistic cognitive bias in rats previously housed in standard caging, possibly indicative of a more positive affective state. These results add support to the suggestion that measuring cognitive biases can give an insight into animal emotional states; this has implications for animal welfare and preclinical testing of potential therapeutics for mood disorders. (c) 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.