Domestic horses (Equus caballus) discriminate between negative and positive human nonverbal vocalisations

Scientific Reports
Amy Victoria SmithKaren McComb

Abstract

The ability to discriminate between emotion in vocal signals is highly adaptive in social species. It may also be adaptive for domestic species to distinguish such signals in humans. Here we present a playback study investigating whether horses spontaneously respond in a functionally relevant way towards positive and negative emotion in human nonverbal vocalisations. We presented horses with positively- and negatively-valenced human vocalisations (laughter and growling, respectively) in the absence of all other emotional cues. Horses were found to adopt a freeze posture for significantly longer immediately after hearing negative versus positive human vocalisations, suggesting that negative voices promote vigilance behaviours and may therefore be perceived as more threatening. In support of this interpretation, horses held their ears forwards for longer and performed fewer ear movements in response to negative voices, which further suggest increased vigilance. In addition, horses showed a right-ear/left-hemisphere bias when attending to positive compared with negative voices, suggesting that horses perceive laughter as more positive than growling. These findings raise interesting questions about the potential for universal discr...Continue Reading

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Citations

Sep 5, 2019·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Andrew Robins
Oct 28, 2019·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Miléna TröschLéa Lansade
Jul 2, 2020·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Angelo QuarantaMarcello Siniscalchi
Jan 23, 2020·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Anne SchrimpfChristian Nawroth
Sep 1, 2019·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Chihiro BabaAyaka Takimoto-Inose
Feb 13, 2021·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Danila d'AngeloAngelo Quaranta
Oct 7, 2020·Scientific Reports·Tasmin HumphreyKaren McComb
Jun 3, 2021·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·Katrina Merkies, Olivia Franzin

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