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

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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.