How does man’s best friend respond to pain?
Previous research suggested that personality in horses might relate the expression of pain, in a similar way to humans. Recent research carried out by Dr Carrie Ijichi and James Lush looked at dogs recovering from routine castration in applied veterinary settings. They measured arousal using infrared thermography of core temperature and pain behaviour and personality. Owners also rated how tolerant they thought their dog was to pain, as horse owners were found really adept at understanding this in their horses. Pain behaviour didn’t correlate with emotional arousal, meaning pain behaviour might not be a good indicator of how the animal feels, which supports the earlier research in horses. Interestingly, more highly extrovert subjects had significantly higher pain scores, as is also seen in horses and human subjects. There was no relationship between extroversion and temperature before surgery, but after surgery a possible relationship was noted. Extravert dogs appear to have an increase in core temperature, but introvert dogs show a decrease. More extrovert subjects also had hotter right eyes, compared to left, which may indicate a more emotional response. Surprisingly, Neuroticism didn’t correlate to any measures which contrasts with human and horse research. It’s not clear why this would be but it could be due to difference in prey and predator species or the method of measuring personality. Finally, owners were not accurate in their predictions of their dog’s tolerance to pain. This is very surprising considering dogs live within the home and spend more time interacting with their owners. Overall, this research suggests we may need to rethink how we judge the experience of pain and the role individual differences play.
The full article can be found here.
Blog
Categories
Archive
- November 2024
- October 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- August 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016