Jaak talks about how the touch from the mother counteracts physiological pain in the infant. He show the similarities in a baby bird seeing its mother after separation. Brain opioids are stimulated in human and non-human animals with touch. These studies were done on guinea pigs, chickens, primates, and more. The effects were the same.
Depression can be caused by many things including lack of choice within their environments. Lack of choice can lead to the animal learning that no matter how hard they try, they may not have control over consequences. Play, enrichment, and interaction via positive reinforcement training, teaches the animal that interactions bring positive consequences, meaning the animal does have control over its environment. This is important with social animals. What happens with that socialization when segregated from each other, or us? Jaak states that in his studies when the animals are asked if they want to play with us, it was clear their answers were 'Yes'. Play can lead lead to be anti-depressing to humans and non-humans alike.
Studies already show that if we are actually using positive reinforcement learning and teaching with our animals, it is their preferred form of enrichment and learning. Jaak states below:
"Taking the emotional feelings of animals seriously may yield more rapid understanding of human emotions and thereby promote progress in psychiatric medicinal development."
We can learn so much through our animals. We can care for them better when we know better. When we know better, we do better! Let's do better!
Here is a clip of a TED talk from the amazing Jaak Panskepp, whom has just recently passed, neuroscientist and psychobiologist. He was a scientist who’s work was dedicated to the well being of animals. He has done a lot of research on laughter in non-human animals. I recently made a post about this in our Level II Membership Program. His passing is a huge loss to the science and animal community.
Jaak Panskepp: The Science of Emotions
If you questions, please feel free to e-mail us.
Sincerely,
Lara Joseph & The Critters of The Animal Behavior Center
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