Wednesday, May 26, 2010

According to new research, scientists believe that like humans, animals show emotions through facial expressions. Studies conducted on laboratory mice reactions to pain have led scientist to this conclusion. While the researchers do recognize that mice are significantly different than dogs, they believe that all animals express emotion in similar ways.

The study was published in the scientific journal, Nature Methods, by Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist and psychologist at McGill University in Canada. To determine whether rodents scowl when in agony, Mogil and team observed and documented facial contortions prior to and during the injection of a substance known to cause painful inflammation.

The research was not conducted to decipher animal expression but to develop a pain scale on which to index for developing better ways to relieve pain, both in humans and in animals. When hurting was more powerful, the mice eyes narrowed, the nose and cheeks protruded, the ears moved, and the whiskers compressed against the face.

The study also supports Darwinian credence that non-human animals convey emotion by means of facial expression, and that such emotional expressions have evolved. Subsequently, the researchers are now exploring if the pain scale translate well into other species, such as dogs, and to establish if mice react to facial indications among themselves.

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