Attention Bias: A novel method to assess psychological wellbeing in group-housed non-human primates

注意偏差：一种评估群养非人类灵长类动物心理健康的新方法

• 批准号: NC/L000539/1
• 负责人: Emily Bethell
• 金额: $ 9.44万
• 依托单位: Liverpool John Moores University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NC%2FL000539%2F1
• 关键词: Attention; Bias; novel; method; assess

A better understanding of emotions and feelings in animals is of paramount importance to animal welfare science, but measuring psychological well-being in animals is intrinsically difficult. Existing indicators of well-being focus on indirect physiological or behavioural measures that have a number of limitations, particularly in their interpretation. Work with humans shows that psychological well-being is directly linked to biases in attention for particular types of information, and this can be measured using simple orienting paradigms. Our previous work has shown these methods are suitable for adaptation for use with animals and may provide a new and powerful set of welfare assessment tools.In this project we will adapt, refine and validate a state-of-the-art welfare assessment tool, based on our initial work on 'attention bias' (AB) in non-human primates (Bethell et al 2012 PLoS ONE 7:e44387). In humans, AB describes the way in which people who are anxious are vigilant for threatening social information: they are faster to detect potential threats (such as an angry face), and look at such threatening material for longer than do non-anxious people. As a result, anxious individuals are over-exposed to stimuli that will reinforce their negative mood; such preferential attention to even mildly threatening information has special significance for welfare, as it is associated with vulnerability to clinical levels of anxiety, and impaired psychological wellbeing.Previously, we successfully developed a method for assessing AB in individually housed captive rhesus macaques, by filming their gaze towards images of aggressive and neutral macaque faces. We will now adapt the original test for use with group-housed rhesus macaques at a breeding facility in the UK, and refine the method to provide an easily applied tool that can be implemented by care staff to assess psychological wellbeing in animals living in social groups. We will then validate AB as a measure of well-being using behavioural and physiological indicators of welfare and associated genetic indicators of emotion pre-disposition, and assess the extent to which individual AB scores can be used to predict responses to future stressors such as a pre-planned veterinary inspection. This research represents a ground-breaking approach to assessment of welfare in captive animals. It directly addresses the NC3Rs objective for the refinement of the use of animals in research, through development of a powerful but easily employed tool to assess psychological wellbeing and to predict responses to future stressors. This method will facilitate improvement of welfare in research situations where use of primates is unavoidable, and enhance the lifetime experience of these animals. Psychologically healthy research animals will be physically healthier and more robust to stressors and illness, more likely to learn protocols, and provide 'cleaner' data. Once established for non-human primates, it is anticipated the assessment tools developed will be suitable for adaptation for use with a range of other taxa, including domestic pets and livestock.Longer term, our research group is working towards adapting a new human therapeutic application - 'attention bias modification' to develop a novel intervention that will go beyond assessing psychological states to improve psychological wellbeing in captive rhesus macaques. Recent work with humans has demonstrated that, while increased vigilance towards threat leads to increased anxiety, training people to attend away from threatening stimuli leads to a reduction in anxious or depressed mood, and reduces vulnerability to anxiety following real-life stressors. A key focus of our approach is to utilise latest technological developments in hand-held computer technologies to provide the best quality widely accessible and afforadble tools for assessing and improving the welfare of captive animals.

更好地了解动物的情绪和感受对动物福利科学至关重要，但测量动物的心理健康本质上是困难的。现有的福祉指标侧重于间接的生理或行为措施，这些措施有一些局限性，特别是在解释方面。对人类的研究表明，心理健康与对特定类型信息的注意力偏差直接相关，这可以用简单的定向范式来衡量。我们之前的工作已经表明这些方法适用于动物，并可能提供一套新的和强大的福利评估工具。在这个项目中，我们将适应，完善和验证最先进的福利评估工具，基于我们对非人类灵长类动物的“注意力偏差”（AB）的初步工作（Bethell et al 2012 PLoS ONE 7：e44387）。在人类中，AB描述了焦虑的人对威胁性社会信息的警惕方式：他们能更快地发现潜在的威胁（如愤怒的面孔），并且比非焦虑的人更长时间地观察这些威胁性材料。因此，焦虑的人过度暴露于刺激，这将加强他们的消极情绪;这种对甚至轻微威胁信息的优先关注对于福利具有特殊意义，因为它与临床焦虑水平的脆弱性和受损的心理健康有关。以前，我们成功地开发了一种用于评估单独圈养的恒河猴中AB的方法，通过拍摄他们对攻击性和中性猕猴面孔的凝视。我们现在将调整原来的测试，用于在英国的一个繁殖设施中的群体饲养恒河猴，并改进该方法，以提供一种易于应用的工具，可以由护理人员实施，以评估生活在社会群体中的动物的心理健康。然后，我们将使用行为和生理指标的福利和相关的遗传指标的情绪倾向，并评估在何种程度上可以使用个人AB分数来预测未来的压力源，如预先计划的兽医检查的反应AB作为幸福的措施。这项研究代表了一种突破性的方法来评估圈养动物的福利。它直接解决了NC3Rs的目标，即通过开发一种强大但易于使用的工具来评估心理健康并预测对未来压力源的反应，从而改进动物在研究中的使用。这种方法将有助于改善福利的研究情况下，使用灵长类动物是不可避免的，并提高这些动物的一生的经验。心理健康的研究动物将在身体上更健康，对压力和疾病更强大，更有可能学习协议，并提供“更干净”的数据。一旦为非人类灵长类动物建立了评估工具，预计开发的评估工具将适用于一系列其他分类群，包括家养宠物和牲畜。我们的研究小组正致力于适应一种新的人类治疗应用-“注意力偏差修正”，开发一种新的干预措施，超越评估心理状态，改善圈养恒河猴的心理健康猕猴最近对人类的研究表明，虽然对威胁的警惕性增加会导致焦虑增加，但训练人们远离威胁性刺激会减少焦虑或抑郁情绪，并减少现实生活压力源后对焦虑的脆弱性。我们方法的一个重点是利用手持式计算机技术的最新技术发展，提供最优质、广泛使用且价格实惠的工具，用于评估和改善圈养动物的福利。