Award details

Behavioural and neural assessments of the use of mental imagery by sheep

Reference	BBS/E/B/0000L477
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Keith Kendrick
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Babraham Institute
Department	Babraham Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	74,469
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2001
End date	02/04/2004
Duration	39 months

Abstract

If animals can form and use mental images of objects, individuals and experiences this is potential evidence for their having consciousness and enhances their capacity for suffering. We will use naturalistic digitised video sequences which indicate the presence of individuals who can not actually be seen, or recordings of their vocalisations or exposure to olfactory cues, to encourage sheep to form visual mental images of specific individuals. We will then investigate whether the animals can use mental imagery to solve problems in a choice maze where training has originally only been given using actual face images. Performance on delayed matching and non-matching to sample paradigms using facial stimuli will also be assessed since, in humans, success on these tasks requires the ability to form and retain mental images of faces. These experiments will be contrasted with similar conditions where video or auditory sequences are used to signify the presence of non-social objects like food. In humans, brain imaging experiments have shown that mental imagery evokes similar patterns of neural activation as following actual perception of objects and individuals. By using functional neuroanatomical mapping (c-fos/zif-268 mRNA expression) and multi-array electrophysiological recordings we indend to use behaviourally defined animals to investigate whether brain systems which are specialised for recognition of faces are activated under circumstances where it is predicted that mental imagery has been evoked.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Animal Sciences (AS)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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