Award details

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

ReferenceS13354
Principal Investigator / Supervisor Professor Keith Kendrick
Co-Investigators /
Co-Supervisors
Institution Babraham Institute
DepartmentCognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience
Funding typeResearch
Value (£) 274,096
StatusCompleted
TypeResearch Grant
Start date 02/01/2001
End date 01/03/2004
Duration38 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 intend 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 TopicsX – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research PriorityX – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative X - not in an Initiative
Funding SchemeX – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme
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