interesting example of the relevance of neuroscientific data gathered from sheep to the human condition, as it implies the conservation of a defined neural network between the two species.

Measuring Emotions in Sheep

As with any animal model, it is important to rigorously characterize its baseline behaviors before one can fully embrace the model in an experimental setting. One of the greatest challenges of such characterization is determining the emotional or affective state of a given animal. It is hard to resist the temptation to attribute human emotions to animals, and intuition alone will not stand up to scrutiny. However challenging to interpret, it is important to have some grasp on an animal’s affective state if their performance on a given assay is to be interpreted properly. A highly stressed animal, for example, may not perform well on a cognitive test for reasons unrelated to that animal’s relative cognitive ability.

A 2009 study sought to describe the behavioral and physiological characteristics of sheep in three scenarios presumed to evoke different emotional states: separation from the flock was meant to evoke negative emotions, voluntary grooming by a familiar person was meant to evoke positive emotions, and presence in the feeding area was intended to represent a neutral condition. The researchers noted the following behaviors and physiological measurements in each condition: