tailieunhanh - Ebook Asking animals, an introduction to animal behaviour testing: Part 2

Part 2 book "Asking animals - An introduction to animal behaviour testing" includes content: Effects of age and treatment; reinforcement and punishment; learning capacity, memory and cognitive ability; genetic components of behaviour; other test considerations; legislation, guidelines and ethical considerations, future methodologies and technological advances. | Effects of Age and Treatment 7 Age and Time Effects Changes over time in the behaviour of animals can be caused by differ- ent factors. Differences in behavioural responses between age groups when comparing young adolescent and adult animals are often due to differ- ences in development such as physiological physical or even morphologi- cal changes with time. An example of the latter would be the absence and presence of horns in some ruminant males which affects the ability to at- tain dominance even if mainly through posturing. Another time effect is increased experience both in the short and long term. Older animals all other things being equal will have had more time to acquire certain skills and will have been exposed to a greater variety of situations. However the reverse effect of ageing also occurs where older animals may react differ- ently to their younger conspecifics due to a deterioration in some form of sensory physical or mental capacity. Many behavioural tests will be suitable for testing any of the three cat- egories mentioned above but disentangling the relative contribution of age and experience can sometimes be difficult. In the following examples will be given of tests employed to investigate behavioural effects of age- ing development and experience respectively. It should be noted that the behavioural protocols chosen in these examples may also be used in other contexts. Behavioural aspects of ageing Biological ageing or senescence can be defined as a gradual deterioration of functional characteristics with time. This is an area of research of in- creasing importance for human health and welfare especially in terms of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer s disease. As a result more and more experiments are carried out to simulate the progression of senes- cence with animal models being developed in both rodents and pigs . Birte L. Nielsen 2020. Asking Animals An Introduction to Animal 78 Behaviour Testing Birte L. Nielsen Effects