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On the impact of the coping type on behavioural flexibility and stress reactivity of dwarf goats during learning

应对类型对矮山羊学习过程中行为灵活性和应激反应性的影响

基本信息

批准号：
247526520
负责人：
Dr. Susann Oesterwind
金额：
--
依托单位：
Forschungsinstitut für Nutztierbiologie (FBN)
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Grants
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2012-12-31 至 2017-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/247526520?language=en
关键词：
impact coping type behavioural flexibility

项目摘要

During the confrontation with specific classes of environmental stimuli, individual differences that are consistent across various situations have been described in animals with regard to behavioural as well as physiological characteristics. During coping with challenging or threatening events, several animal species show distinct patterns of behavioural, neuroendocrine and autonomic stress response, which are described as coping types. Tests that measure different facets of boldness and behavioural flexibility often discriminate between a proactive and a reactive type. Behavioural flexibility is defined as the ability of an individual to react on environmental stimuli and to adapt its behaviour to changing conditions. Differences in behavioural flexibility seem to be an important underlying attribute or feature of the coping types described above and can explain individual differences in a variety of behaviours and situations.In the present study, the coping type (proactive, intermediate or reactive) of 20 female juvenile dwarf goats each in six experimental groups will be determined by the analysis of their behaviour in the backtest and the novel-object test. Afterwards, the animals should learn visual discrimination tasks at an automated learning device that is situated in the home pen of the goats and available 24 hours a day. After successful training of a four-choice discrimination task, we will investigate reversal learning. Thereby, previously unrewarded symbols are now offered as the rewarded symbol. Simultaneously, we will study behavioural flexibility of the goats in a spatial discrimination task. After the animals had learned to choose one alley in a Y-maze, we investigate spatial reversal learning by changing the rewarded alley. In both contexts, we analyse the impact of the coping type on learning performance in the original and the reversed task. The autonomous regulation during mental stress will be investigated by analysing heart rate- and blood pressure variability in the context of visual or spatial learning tasks and depending on the coping type. For this purpose, a digital transmitter will be implanted in the goats, which records on-line the ECG and the blood pressure curve of group-housed animals.The goal of the project is to identify representatives of the different coping types by means of behavioural testing and to investigate the impact of the coping type on behavioural flexibility in the context of visual and spatial learning. Possible differences in autonomous regulatory capacity between the coping types should be investigated. In farm animals, the knowledge of specific coping types and their impact on behavioural flexibility and autonomous regulation are of particular importance for animal welfare.

在面对特定类别的环境刺激时，动物在行为和生理特征方面已经描述了在各种情况下一致的个体差异。在应对挑战性或威胁性事件时，一些动物物种表现出不同的行为、神经内分泌和自主应激反应模式，这些模式被称为应对类型。衡量勇气和行为灵活性不同方面的测试通常会区分主动型和反应型。行为灵活性被定义为个体对环境刺激做出反应并使其行为适应不断变化的条件的能力。行为灵活性的差异似乎是上述应对类型的一个重要的潜在属性或特征，可以解释各种行为和情况下的个体差异。在本研究中，六个实验组中每组20只雌性幼年矮山羊的应对类型（主动型、中间型或反应型）将通过回测和新物体测试中的行为分析来确定。之后，动物应该在山羊圈舍内的自动学习设备上学习视觉辨别任务，该设备每天 24 小时可用。在成功训练四项选择判别任务后，我们将研究逆转学习。因此，以前未奖励的符号现在被提供为奖励符号。同时，我们将研究山羊在空间辨别任务中的行为灵活性。当动物学会在 Y 型迷宫中选择一条小巷后，我们通过改变奖励小巷来研究空间反转学习。在这两种情况下，我们分析了应对类型对原始任务和逆向任务中学习表现的影响。将通过分析视觉或空间学习任务背景下的心率和血压变异性并根据应对类型来研究精神压力期间的自主调节。为此，将在山羊体内植入数字发射器，在线记录群养动物的心电图和血压曲线。该项目的目标是通过行为测试来识别不同应对类型的代表，并在视觉和空间学习的背景下研究应对类型对行为灵活性的影响。应调查应对类型之间自主调节能力可能存在的差异。对于农场动物来说，了解特定应对类型及其对行为灵活性和自主调节的影响对于动物福利特别重要。