A Look at the Emotional

Lives of Animals
Temple Grandin
Department of Animal Sciences
Colorado State University
Ian Duncan has
discussed feelings in
animals
Feelings motivate
behavior
Neuroscience studies
provide data that shows
that animal emotions
(feelings) have
similarities to human
emotions
Animals Have Emotions
Prozac works on dogs
Brain systems where
emotions originate are
located in subcortical
brain areas that are
similar in all mammals
Neurotransmitters
same
 Core Emotions
FEAR – Most primitive emotion for survival
RAGE - Anger
PANIC – Separation anxiety
SEEKING – Approach novelty
ADDITIONAL EMOTIONS – Lust, caring, play

Jaak Panksepp,
Affective Neuroscience, 1998
 Amygdala is the fear
center in the subcortex
Electrical stimulation elicits behavioral
signs of fear (Davis, 1992)
In cats and rats, stimulation increases
pituitary adrenal activity and raises stress
hormones (Redgate and Faringer, 1973; Setckleiv et
al., 1961)
Destroying the Amygdala
Has a Taming Effect
Monkeys explore
everything in the room –
No fear (Kluver and Bucy, 1937)
Rats no longer fear cats
Taming effect on wild rats
(Kremble et al., 1984)
Teaching Antelopes to Cooperate
with Blood Sampling
Handling stress is short-term fear
stress
Long-term chronic fear stress may be
occurring if an animal does not have
the opportunity to perform certain hard
wired behaviors that may be motivated
by fear. Many of these behaviors help
protect animals from predators
 Hens are highly motivated to lay their eggs
in a secluded nest box (Cooper and Appleby,
1996; Appleby and McFee, 1986)

FEAR
MOTIVATED
??
Probably Yes
Photo by Carol Burbridge
Stereotypic digging in gerbils was almost
stopped by providing a place to hide
instead of providing sand to dig in
(Wiedenmayer, 1974)
The Gerbil was Motivated to
Continue Digging
Futile attempt to create a
hiding place
Sand in a shallow arena
where burrowing was
impossible was not an
effective environmental
enrichment
A pre-made artificial burrow
was effective
 Anti-predator behaviors that are
required for survival are likely to be
motivated by fear. Gerbils that fail to
hide in the wild get eaten by predators
Aggression and rage
occur when the
hypothalamus is
electrically stimulated
(Hess, 1957; Bard, 1928)
 Scientists initially
called the cat’s reaction
“sham rage”

I was taught in the

1960’s that the rage
was not real
 Evidence that Emotion From
Electrical Brain Stimulation was Real

Stimulation produced realistic behaviors

Cats would attack anesthetized rats and
stuffed rats
Did not attack Styrofoam blocks (Levison
and Flynn, 1965)

Fear and rage produced by two separate

brain areas (Ursin and Kaada, 1960)
Panic (separation anxiety) and fear
were genetically separated in a quail
breeding experiment
High fear – High panic (natural bird)
High Fear – Low panic
Low fear – High panic
Low fear – Low panic

(Mills and Faure, 1990, 1991)

Behavioral Measurements
Fear measured with tonic immobility
test
 Separation Anxiety
(called Social Reinstate
by Mills and Faure)
Measured with a moving treadmill

Direction of carpet movement

 Animals need companions to
avoid separation anxiety.
Separation anxiety causes many
behavioral problems in dogs.
Seeking is the drive to
explore new things

Monkeys that had no

fear due to a destroyed
amygdala examined
every object in a strange
room
(Kluver and Bucy, 1939)
Animals are motivated to approach
and investigate new things
Pigs are highly motivated to root and
manipulate straw or soft objects
(Grandin, 1989; Van derWeerd et al., 2009;
Studnitz et al., 2007)
 Providing small amounts of
straw prevents stereotypic bar
biting (Fraser, 1975)
Pigs prefer new objects to manipulate

Grandin, 1989
 Paradox of Novelty
It is both scary and attractive

Causes fear when

suddenly introduced
Attractive when
animals voluntarily
approach
The nucleus accumbens contains circuits
to encourage seeking and circuits that
elicit fearful responses (Reynolds and
Berridge et al., 2009; Berridge, 2008)

It can go into either a seek or fear mode

Explain curiously afraid behavior in cattle
Environmental conditions determine amount of
area in the nucleus accumbens that motivate
seek
Rats living in an environment blasted with
bright light and rock music – A smaller
area of nucleus accumbens is devoted to
seeking (appetative behavior)
Appetative (seeking) behavior in rats.
Measured by observing behavior of the
rat – after micro injections of drugs
that affect neurotransmitters

Positive licking of the lips

Positive increase in eating and food intake
Distress vocalizations, escape attempts, treading
Stimulate mid-section of nucleus accumbens
gets behavioral mixtures
 “Liking” and “Wanting” two
different brain mechanisms
Liking is opiod system measured by licking
Wanting is a dopamine system measured by
food intake

Berridge et al., 2009

 Micro-Injections Used for
Mapping the Seeking Circuits

Opiod agonist DAMGO increases “liking”

Dopamine agonist amphetamine
increases “wanting”
Mapped anatomically distinct for “wanting”
and “liking” and areas with mixed
“wanting” and “liking”
 “Wanting” is in the dopamine system.
“Wanting” brain systems are more widely
distributed in the brain than “liking”
systems (Berridge et al., 2009)

Pathological gambling
Eat a big chocolate sundae and feel
sick. You wanted it but did not really
like it.
Think about the emotional system
driving a behavior when designing
environment enrichment

Photo by Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

 Dogs Need
Both dog and
human companions Activities to turn on
to prevent PANIC SEEKING
Horses Need

Careful habituation to new

things to prevent FEAR
Grazing or hay to satisfy
SEEKING
Companions and social
interaction
The old Neuroscience
research really shows
that animals have
emotions
As more old journals are
scanned, more and more
of this research is
becoming available
www.grandin.com