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

我的团队致力于对动物福利和贫困住房的影响进行客观评估，以期以证据为基础改善农场，实验室和动物园的动物福利。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，无刺激的笼子。它旨在通过提高对环境富集对动物功能的许多潜在益处的理解，正式确定环境富集的定义和分类。因此，对动物福利科学家来说，成功的丰富可以改善福利-但他们可以通过不同的方式做到这一点（通过仔细结合不同的研究方法进行经验梳理的方式）：他们可以通过满足动物对特定资源或活动的需求来缓解慢性压力，或者，也许不太重要，他们可能只是引发了兴奋的情绪或“快乐”。(Some丰富性甚至可以具有两种类型的属性，如果经验导致依赖性，则从“快乐”变为“需要”）。相比之下，对神经科学家来说，成功的丰富会改善大脑的结构和功能。关于这一点有大量的文献;但是，尽管有有趣的证据表明积极的情绪和/或减压可能会介导这种影响，但丰富的营养通过改善动物的健康来促进动物大脑发育的假设从未得到过验证。其他类型的研究也开始揭示丰富营养的长期益处。有些能增强动物的繁殖能力，有些能让它们活得更久。减轻压力是一个合理的解释;人类数据甚至表明，快乐（不仅仅是“没有压力”）可以延长寿命。然而，幸福是否能增强健康，以及如何增强健康，仍然没有完全解决。通过一系列针对水貂和老鼠的实验，我们将建立一个关于20多种不同营养物质的激励和减压特性的数据库，使我们能够统计研究这些效果如何与（甚至导致）增强大脑发育，生殖成功和寿命有关。这项研究是有史以来最全面的富集筛选，对评估和改善圈养动物的福利具有相当大的意义。

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.