"Needs," "pleasures," or both? Operationalizing "environmental enrichments" in terms of their impacts on animal welfare and other aspects of biological functioning

“需要”、“快乐”，还是两者兼而有之？

• 批准号: 328100-2011
• 负责人: Mason, Georgia
• 金额: $ 3.79万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572135
• 关键词: Needs; pleasures; both; Operationalizing; environmental

My group works on the objective assessment of animal welfare & the impact of impoverished housing, with a view to the evidence-based improvement of farm, laboratory & zoo animal well-being. This 5-year program tackles 'environmental enrichment': the adding of complexity &/or opportunities for natural behaviour to barren, unstimulating cages. It aims to formalise how environmental enrichments are defined & categorised, by improving the understanding of their many potential benefits on animals' functioning. Thus to animal welfare scientists, successful enrichments improve welfare - but they can do this in different ways (ways empirically teased apart by carefully combining different research approaches): they may alleviate chronic stress by meet- ing animals' needs for particular resources or activities, or, perhaps less importantly, they may just elicit posit- ive emotions or 'pleasure'. (Some enrichments may even have both types of property, turning from 'Pleasures' into 'Needs' if experience leads to dependency). To neuroscientists, in contrast, successful enrichments cause improvements in brain structure & function. A vast literature exists on this; but despite intriguing evidence that positive emotions and/or stress reduction may mediate such effects, the hypothesis that enrichments enhance animals' brain development by improving their wellbeing has never been tested. Other types of study are start- ing to reveal yet more longterm benefits of enrichment. Some enhance animals' abilities to reproduce; others allow them to live longer. Stress reduction is a plausible explanation; human data even suggest that being happy (not just 'not stressed') improves lifespan. Yet once again, whether wellbeing enhances fitness, & quite how it may do so, is not fully resolved. Through a series of focussed experiments on mink & mice, we will build a substantial database on the motivational & stress-reducing properties of over 20 different enrichments, allowing us to statistically investigate how such effects relate to (even cause) enhanced brain development, reproductive success & lifespan. The most comprehensive screening of enrichments ever conducted, this research has considerable implications for the assessment & improvement of captive animals' welfare.

我的小组致力于对动物福利的客观评估和贫困住房的影响，以期改善农场，实验室和动物园动物的福祉。这个为期5年的计划解决了“环境丰富”：增加复杂性和/或自然行为的机会贫瘠，不刺激的笼子。它旨在通过提高对动物功能的许多潜在好处的理解来形式化环境丰富的定义和分类。因此，对于动物福利科学家而言，成功的丰富性可以改善福利 - 但它们可以通过不同的方式来做到这一点（通过仔细结合不同的研究方法，经验嘲笑的方式）：它们可以通过满足动物对特定资源或活动的需求来减轻慢性压力，或者可能不太重要的是，它们可能只是引起人们的情感或``愉悦''。 （如果经验导致依赖性，有些丰富甚至可能具有两种类型的财产，从“享乐”转变为“需求”）。相反，对于神经科学家而言，成功的富集会改善大脑结构和功能。关于此文献存在巨大的文献；但是，尽管有一个有趣的证据表明积极的情绪和/或压力减轻可能会介导这种影响，但从未测试过通过改善动物的健康来增强动物大脑发育的假设。其他类型的研究开始揭示更多的富集长期益处。一些增强动物繁殖能力的能力；其他人让他们寿命更长。减轻压力是一个合理的解释。人类数据甚至表明，幸福（不仅是“不强调”）可以改善寿命。然而，再次，健康是否可以增强健身，以及如何做到这一点，尚未完全解决。通过一系列针对Mink＆Rice的重点实验，我们将建立一个关于20多种不同富集的动机和减轻压力的特性的实质性数据库，从而使我们能够统计地研究此类效应与（甚至原因）增强大脑发展，生殖成功和生命周期的相关性。这项研究是对富集的最全面筛查，对圈养动物的福利的评估和改善具有相当大的意义。