Male mice and cows perceive human emotional chemosignals: a preliminary study

Destrez, Alexandra; Costes-Thiré, Morgane; Viart, Anne-Sophie; Prost, Floriane; Patris, Bruno; Schaal, Benoı̂st

doi:10.1007/s10071-021-01511-6

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Dogs have been reported to recognise conspecific and human emotions based on both acoustic and visual cues by using a cross-modal preferential looking paradigm [ 21 ]. Recently, research has extended to transmission of emotional information via odour signals between species, such as a recent study by Destrez et al [ 5 ] finding that male mice and cows seemed to perceive and react to stressful human chemosignals. As olfaction is key to a dog’s perception of their environment and those around them [ 22 ], it is imperative to investigate human-dog relationships through the lens of olfaction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A canine's sense of smell provides critical information, essential for being aware of potential predators, locating food, identifying conspecifics (and their reproductive status), and enabling recognition of familial members [2][3][4]. Research on chemosignals has extended to explore inter-specific communication, such as that between mice and humans [5], cows and humans [5], horses and humans [6] and canines and humans [7]. Given domestic canines' remarkable sense of smell, and their close domestication history with humans, it is possible that they are detecting odours associated with changes within the human body beyond those that have already been established.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

et al. 2022

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Previous research suggests that dogs can detect when humans are experiencing stress. This study tested whether baseline and stress odours were distinguishable to dogs, using a double-blind, two-phase, three-alternative forced-choice procedure. Combined breath and sweat samples were obtained from participants at baseline, and after a stress-inducing (mental arithmetic) task. Participants’ stress was validated with self-report and physiological measures recorded via a Biopac MP150 system. Thirty-six participants’ samples were presented to four dogs across 36 sessions (16, 11, 7 and 2 sessions, respectively). Each session consisted of 10 Phase One training trials and 20 Phase Two discrimination trials. In Phase One, the dog was presented with a participant’s stress sample (taken immediately post-task) alongside two blanks (the sample materials without breath or sweat), and was required to identify the stress sample with an alert behaviour. In Phase Two, the dog was presented with the stress sample, the same participant’s baseline sample (taken pre-task), and a blank. Which sample (blank, baseline, or stress) the dog performed their alert behaviour on was measured. If dogs can correctly alert on the stress sample in Phase Two (when the baseline sample was present), it suggests that baseline and stress odours are distinguishable. Performance ranged from 90.00% to 96.88% accuracy with a combined accuracy of 93.75% (N trials = 720). A binomial test (where probability of success on a single trial was 0.33, and alpha was 0.05) showed that the proportion of correct trials was greater than that expected by chance (p < 0.001). Results indicate that the physiological processes associated with an acute psychological stress response produce changes in the volatile organic compounds emanating from breath and/or sweat that are detectable to dogs. These results add to our understanding of human-dog relationships and could have applications to Emotional Support and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) service dogs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

et al. 2022

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“…The odor-collection method was adapted from previous studies on human body odor 28 , 29 , 38 . Human axillary sweat odor was collected from 24 adult participants (6 males and 18 females) who volunteered to take part in the experiment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few studies have suggested that domestic mammals can perceive our emotions through olfaction and are influenced by them. For example, cattle sniffed human sweat produced in a non-stressful context for longer than that produced in a stressful context 29 , and dogs can distinguish between human odors from baseline and psychological stress conditions 30 . Dogs also showed more stress-like behaviors 25 and interacted less with an unfamiliar human 31 , 32 after sniffing human sweat collected while watching a fear-inducing video rather than a joy-inducing video.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses discriminate human body odors between fear and joy contexts in a habituation-discrimination protocol

Jardat

Destrez

Damon

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Animals are widely believed to sense human emotions through smell. Chemoreception is the most primitive and ubiquitous sense, and brain regions responsible for processing smells are among the oldest structures in mammalian evolution. Thus, chemosignals might be involved in interspecies communication. The communication of emotions is essential for social interactions, but very few studies have clearly shown that animals can sense human emotions through smell. We used a habituation-discrimination protocol to test whether horses can discriminate between human odors produced while feeling fear vs. joy. Horses were presented with sweat odors of humans who reported feeling fear or joy while watching a horror movie or a comedy, respectively. A first odor was presented twice in successive trials (habituation), and then, the same odor and a novel odor were presented simultaneously (discrimination). The two odors were from the same human in the fear or joy condition; the experimenter and the observer were blinded to the condition. Horses sniffed the novel odor longer than the repeated odor, indicating they discriminated between human odors produced in fear and joy contexts. Moreover, differences in habituation speed and asymmetric nostril use according to odor suggest differences in the emotional processing of the two odors.

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“…show that horses handled by calm and positive humans show lower heart rates and lower cortisol concentrations (reviewed in Rørvang et al, 2020). Recent research hints that cattle may be able to recognise human stress related chemosignals (Destrez et al, 2021). If cattle are able to associate these signals with negative humananimal interactions, they may consequently change their behaviour, hence these results should be explored further on larger samples and other breeds (only Charolaise were tested in Destrez et al, 2021), as to be able to make a final conclusion on the common saying that cows can smell a person's bad mood.…”

Section: How Cattle Perceive and Interact With Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunities (and challenges) in dairy cattle cognition research: A key area needed to design future high welfare housing systems

Nawroth¹,

Rørvang²

2022

Preprint

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The ability of cattle to adapt to husbandry systems and routines is crucial for the functionality of the production. However, this ability can be compromised by our limited knowledge of their cognitive abilities, which may result in suboptimal husbandry and management standards. In this scoping review, we highlight three key topics of cattle cognition research that are currently understudied. We elucidate promising research areas from an industry point of view: transmission of information from cow to calf, mechanisms to attenuate fear, and processes involved in the human-cattle relationship. We review the currently available literature on all three topics and highlight potential pitfalls as well as promising future research questions. Future studies should focus on elucidating what and how much calves learn from their dam during prolonged cow-calf contact in dairy cattle. Such information could constitute an important part of the discussion of whether to keep cows and calves together for a longer time after calving in the dairy industry. Fear in the cattle group might be lowered by the use of calm companions and future studies could uncover if attenuation of fear might even be induced by conditioning positive experiences of cattle with unrelated stimuli e.g. odours. Lastly, the human-cattle relationship might benefit from utilising the already established training regimes from other species, e.g. positive reinforcement training or target training, which may have the potential to decrease risk of injury during handling for the cow and handler.

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Male mice and cows perceive human emotional chemosignals: a preliminary study

Cited by 14 publications

References 48 publications

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

Horses discriminate human body odors between fear and joy contexts in a habituation-discrimination protocol

Opportunities (and challenges) in dairy cattle cognition research: A key area needed to design future high welfare housing systems

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