Mice have a range of facial expressions, researchers find
Source: The Guardian
Mice have a range of facial expressions, researchers find
Findings offer researchers new ways to measure intensity of emotional responses
Nicola Davis
Thu 2 Apr 2020 19.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 2 Apr 2020 22.01 BST
Whether it is screwing up your face when sucking a lemon, or smiling while sitting in the sun, humans have a range of facial expressions that reflect how they feel. Now, researchers say, they have found mice do too.
“Mice exhibit facial expressions that are specific to the underlying emotions,” said Dr Nadine Gogolla, co-author of the research from Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology. She said the findings were important, as they offer researchers new ways to measure the intensity of emotional responses, which could help them probe how emotions arise in the brain.
What’s more, she said, the findings show mice have a repertoire of emotions.
Writing in the journal Science, Gogolla and colleagues report that they exposed mice to a mixture of triggers. These included electric shocks to the tail, sweet treats, and lithium chloride injections, which induced a state akin to nausea.
While the authors say the facial movements that followed were noticeable, anyone hoping for a comical murine grimace may be disappointed.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/02/mice-have-a-range-of-facial-expressions-researchers-find
The research provides new ways to measure the intensity of emotional responses Photograph: Julia Kuhl/Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology
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Related: Facial expressions of emotion states and their neuronal correlates in mice (Science)
The discovery could also help researchers explore whether animals share information through their facial expressions. Photograph: Julia Kuhl/Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology
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