EEG based assessment of stress in horses: a pilot study

Nora V de Camp; Mechthild Ladwig-Wiegard; Carola I E Geitner; Jürgen Bergeler; Christa Thöne-Reineke

doi:10.7717/peerj.8629

EEG based assessment of stress in horses: a pilot study

PeerJ. 2020 May 12:8:e8629. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8629. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Nora V de Camp^#^{1

2}, Mechthild Ladwig-Wiegard^#², Carola I E Geitner², Jürgen Bergeler^{2

3}, Christa Thöne-Reineke²

Affiliations

¹ Behavioral Physiology, Institute of Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
² Institute of Animal Welfare, Animal Behavior and Laboratory Animal Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
³ Biology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

As has been hypothesized more than 20 years ago, data derived from Electroencephalography (EEG) measurements can be used to distinguish between behavioral states associated with animal welfare. In our current study we found a high degree of correlation between the modulation index of phase related amplitude changes in the EEG of horses (n = 6 measurements with three different horses, mare and gelding) and their facial expression, measured by the use of the horse grimace scale. Furthermore, the pattern of phase amplitude coupling (PAC) was significantly different between a rest condition and a stress condition in horses. This pilot study paves the way for a possible use of EEG derived PAC as an objective tool for the assessment of animal welfare. Beyond that, the method might be useful to assess welfare aspects in the clinical setting for human patients, as for example in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Keywords: Animal welfare; Horse; Horse grimace scale; Phase amplitude coupling; Stress; Telemetric EEG.

Grants and funding

Support was provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.