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Wild KN, Skiba S, Räsänen S, Richter CP. Pupillometry to show stress release during equine sports massage therapy. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20881. [PMID: 38012245 PMCID: PMC10682011 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47590-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2023] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Anecdotal reports state that wellness treatments for horses, such as massage therapy, relaxes the treated animal. Massage therapists and horse owners typically report an "improvement" without verifying or quantifying the treatment results. This paper shows that the effect of wellness treatment and stress release can be measured with pupillometry. One of the horse's pupils was photographed at the beginning and end of the treatment to determine the changes in the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic system activities. The owners assigned horses to two experimental groups: animals receiving a massage (N = 18) and horses standing with a person next to the horse for the time of a massage in the stable lane (N = 10). Six animals in the experimental group were excluded from the analysis because the pupils could not be traced. We opened the images of the pupil with Fiji (ImageJ) and used the elliptical selection tool to measure the pupils' and iris' areas. The ratio between the pupils' aperture and the iris' area was a normalized measure for pupil size. At the end of the experiment, we compared the normalized size of the pupils with a two-tailed paired t-test within groups and a two-tailed t-test between groups. For the experimental group, it was before and after the treatment, and for the control group, before and after the horse was placed in the stable lane. Comparisons between the experimental and control groups were made at the procedure's beginning and end. The treatment significantly decreased the normalized pupil area in the experimental group, on average, by a factor of 0.78 ± 0.15 (P = 0.042). For the horses in the control group, the pupil size increased, on average, by a factor of 1.14 ± 018. Changes were statistically not significant (P = 0.19). The initial pupil size of the horses in the experimental group was 1.88 times larger than that in the control group. After the treatment, the difference was reduced to a factor of 1.25. At the beginning of the experiment, the horses in the experimental group had, on average, larger pupil sizes than the horses in the control group, indicating that the horses in the experimental group were more stressed before the treatment than the control animals. The observed changes in pupil size in the experimental group likely resulted from enhanced parasympathetic and diminished sympathetic activity resulting from the treatment. Observed changes in pupil size agree with the anecdotal horse owner reports and the therapist's treatment notes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Stephan Skiba
- SkImagine, Fatburs Brunnsgata 26 LGH 1403, 118 28, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Suvi Räsänen
- SR Häst- Och Ryttarutbildning, Vreta 1, 186 93, Vallentuna, Sweden
| | - Claus-Peter Richter
- Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology, Northwestern University, 320 E. Superior Street, Searle 13-564, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 70 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Tech E310, Evanston, IL, 60201, USA.
- The Hugh Knowles Center, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 70 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
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Svitačová K, Slavík O, Horký P. Pigmentation potentially influences fish welfare in aquaculture. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2023.105903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2023]
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Zeng H, Jiang Y, Beer-Hammer S, Yu X. Awake Mouse fMRI and Pupillary Recordings in the Ultra-High Magnetic Field. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:886709. [PMID: 35903811 PMCID: PMC9318598 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.886709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Awake rodent fMRI is becoming a promising non-invasive brain imaging module when investigating large-scale brain function given behavioral tasks. Previous studies have either applied sedatives during scanning or pre-treatment of anesthetics, e.g., isoflurane, to reduce the motion of animals, which could confound the brain function of "awake" states in rodents. Here, we have established a long training awake mouse fMRI-pupillometry paradigm/setup without the initial use of anesthesia. To validate the awake mouse fMRI platform, evoked BOLD-fMRI was performed to identify brain activation in the visual cortex, dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei, and superior colliculus. Furthermore, pupil signal fluctuation was investigated during scanning, showing a less dilated pupil after 5-8 weeks of intermittent training. Thus, using the awake mouse fMRI with real-time pupillometry provides a longitudinal functional mapping tool to study fully conscious mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hang Zeng
- High-Field Magnetic Resonance Department, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany
- Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, International Max Planck Research School, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Yuanyuan Jiang
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Sandra Beer-Hammer
- Department of Pharmacology, Experimental Therapy, and Toxicology, Interfaculty Center of Pharmacogenomics and Drug Research (ICePhA), University of Tüebingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Xin Yu
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
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Slavík O, Horký P, Valchářová T, Pfauserová N, Velíšek J. Comparative study of stress responses, laterality and familiarity recognition between albino and pigmented fish. ZOOLOGY 2021; 150:125982. [PMID: 34896758 DOI: 10.1016/j.zool.2021.125982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Oculocutaneous albinism is the result of a combination of homozygous recessive mutations that block the synthesis of the tyrosine and melatonin hormones. This disability is associated with physiological limitations, e.g., visual impairment expressed by lower visual acuity and movement perception, and eventually leads to acrophobia and/or photophobia, suggesting a potentially higher stress level associated with the behavioral responses of individuals with albinism to external stimuli compared to their pigmented conspecifics. However, in fish, differences in behavioral and/or physiological responses and stress levels between these phenotypes have been poorly documented. While acoustic perception of albino individuals is well known, the use of olfactory sensors for social communication, e.g., for the preference for familiar conspecifics, remains poorly understood. We performed two laboratory experiments with albino and pigmented European catfish Silurus glanis to observe: i) their behavioral and physiological responses to short-term stress induced by a combination of air exposure and novel environmental stressors and ii) their ability to use odor keys to recognize of familiar conspecifics and the influence of lateralization on this preference. In response to stress stimuli, albino fish showed higher movement activities and ventilatory frequencies and more often changed their swimming directions compared to their pigmented conspecifics. Blood plasma analysis showed significantly higher values of stress-, deprivation-, and emotional arousal-associated substances, e.g., glucose and lactate, as well as of substances released during intensive muscle activity of hyperventilation and tissue hypoxia, e.g., hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, erythrocytes, and neutrophil granulocytes. A preference test between environments with and without scented water showed the preference by both albino and pigmented catfish for environments with scent of familiar conspecifics, and both groups of fish displayed left-side lateralization associated with the observation of conspecifics and group coordination. The results tended to show higher physiological and behavioral responses of albinos to stress stimuli compared to the responses of their pigmented conspecifics, but the uses of olfactory sensors and lateralization were not differentiated between the two groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ondřej Slavík
- Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic.
| | - Pavel Horký
- Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic
| | - Tereza Valchářová
- Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic
| | - Nikola Pfauserová
- Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic
| | - Josef Velíšek
- Research Institute of Fish Culture and Hydrobiology, South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Zátiší 728/II, 389 25, Vodňany, Czech Republic
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