10.5061/DRYAD.X69P8CZG4
Clarkson, Jasmine
0000-0001-5899-4245
University of Glasgow
Leach, Matthew
Newcastle University
Flecknell, Paul
Newcastle University
Rowe, Candy
Newcastle University
Negative mood affects the expression of negative but not positive emotions
in mice
Dryad
dataset
2020
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
https://ror.org/00cwqg982
BB/J014516/1
2020-08-17T00:00:00Z
2020-08-17T00:00:00Z
en
265909 bytes
2
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Whether, and to what extent animals experience emotions is crucial for
understanding their decisions and behaviour, and underpins a range of
scientific fields, including animal behaviour, neuroscience, evolutionary
biology and animal welfare science. However, research has predominantly
focussed on alleviating negative emotions in animals, with the expression
of positive emotions left largely unexplored. Therefore, little is known
about positive emotions in animals and how their expression is mediated.
We used tail handling to induce negative mood in laboratory mice and found
that whilst being more anxious and depressed increased their expression of
a discrete negative emotion (‘disappointment’) meaning that they were less
resilient to negative events, their capacity to express a discrete
positive emotion (‘elation’) was unaffected relative to control mice.
Therefore, we show not only that mice have discrete positive emotions, but
that they do so regardless of their current mood state. Our findings are
the first to suggest that the expression of discrete positive and negative
emotions in animals are not equally affected by long-term mood state. Our
results also demonstrate that repeated negative events can have a
cumulative effect to reduce resilience in laboratory animals, which has
significant implications for animal welfare.