Behavioral Research Blog

Read this guest blog post about an Australian National University PhD research at the Seoul Zoo by Nicky Kim-McCormack and colleagues. 

Measuring changes in captive great ape welfare and conservation attitudes

This blog post is a guest post by Katja Kircher from VTI, the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute. In a recent study with bicyclists, researchers at VTI observed cyclist behavior using eye tracking technology, video recordings, and behavioral coding. All data combined enabled them to assess whether the cyclists met the demands in specific situations. Did receiving a text message influence the cyclist’s behavior, particularly in high-attention demanding circumstances? Read the blog post to learn more!

By Julie Lasselin, PhD, Universitätsklinikum Essen, Germany and John Axelsson, PhD, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Using The Observer XT to investigate overt signs of sickness and health communication

Our research group is investigating the relationships between the immune system and the brain in Humans. One of the models we use is the experimentally-induced sickness. In this model, we intravenously inject a component of a bacteria (but not the bacteria itself), which makes the immune system believe that the body is infected and that it needs to fight the infection. Therefore, this injection activates the immune system for a short time (3-4 hours) during which a sickness response is triggered. This sickness response is composed of all symptoms that we may feel when sick, such as fatigue, reduced appetite, difficulties to concentrate, reduced motivation to see people, etc (1).

Early September I spent an afternoon in the auditorium of the Technical University Eindhoven, The Netherlands to listen to the PhD defense of Sophie Truijens. As I already announced in the blog about simulation-based training, Sophie will tell us more about her study, and share her insights with us in this blog post.

Systematic behavior research in farm animals has increasingly gained importance, especially during the last years.

Since the intensification of animal husbandry has substantially enhanced the discrepancy between natural and artificial environment, the following questions arise: What are the prerequisites for an animal to be able to show its full range of social behavior? How much space do animals require? What is the optimal group size?

The close monitoring of the social behavior of pigs, cattle, poultry and horses plays a major role in terms of welfare assessment and health research.

Today we have another guest blog post for you! Heta Svard from Orion Pharma studies pain and neurological disorders and will be presenting a poster on a recent study at Measuring Behavior 2016 in Dublin this month! I encourage you to pay her a visit (poster no. 39), but for now, you can read about her study in this post. Thanks, Heta! 

Half a year ago, I wrote about rats on the CatWalk XT system, and we added a great white paper written by Kristina Ängeby Möller to the collection. Today, I am very excited to tell you that Marcella Cline (University of Washington) and Dr. Donna Cross (University of Utah) are so kind to share their insights on working with mice on the CatWalk XT system in both a blog post and a white paper. Enjoy!

By Marret K. Noordewier, PhD – Leiden University

Are you interested in using automatic facial expression analysis with FaceReader software in a standardized lab setting? Here are some tips to consider in addition to Leanne Loijens’ tips to optimize facial expression analyses.

The Zebrafish Multi-Chambered Exploratory Test (ZEMCET)

Today we have another guest writing for us, or actually two. I met Frank Scalzo (Bard College, New York) at last year's annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago and I was very curious to find out more about their research using multi-chambered set-ups for their zebrafish larvae. Frank M. Scalzo and his colleague Brandon Chen were kind enough to share their insights in this blog post. Enjoy!

This week we have a guest blog post from Dr. Lora Becker. She is Director of the Neuroscience Program at the University of Evansville. Her primary research activity seeks to understand human and animal emotions. Thank you Lora for the knowledge and enthusiasm you share in this blog!