Expression of emotional valence in pig closed-mouth grunts: Involvement of both source- and filter-related parameters

Briefer, Elodie F.; Vizier, Emilie; Gygax, Lorenz; Hillmann, Edna

doi:10.1121/1.5100612

Cited by 38 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…When the arrival of the partner was delayed, the duration of grunts increased for both partner. Longer grunts had already been associated to negative emotional valence 18,19,28 , which confirms that the delay lead in piglets to a negative emotional state, a situation of non-correspondence with expectation, whatever the partner. These results allow us to conclude that we did succeed in generating a specific anticipatory state during the tests.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…This latter phase is certainly a context with a negative valence (social isolation) and piglets may express the negative valence of this context in the duration of their grunt. In fact, several examples of the literature show that grunt duration is higher in negative contexts 18,28 . The duration of piglets’ grunt was not changed during anticipation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Piglets vocally express the anticipation of (pseudo)-social contexts in their grunts

Villain

Hazard

Danglot

et al. 2020

Preprint

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14Emotions not only arise in reaction to an eliciting event but also while anticipating it, making 15 this context a way to assess the emotional value of events. Anticipatory studies have poorly 16 considered vocalisations whereas they carry information about the emotional state. We studied 17 the grunts of piglets that anticipated two (pseudo)social events known to elicit positive emotions 18 more or less intense: arrival of a familiar conspecifics and arrival of a familiar human. Both 19 time and spectral features of the vocal expression of piglets differed according to the emotional 20 Manuscript -Submission 1 -piglets anticipation grunts context. Piglets produced low-frequency grunts at a higher rate when anticipating conspecifics 21 compared to human. Spectral noise increased when piglets expected conspecifics, whereas the 22 duration and frequency range increased when expecting a human. When the arrival of 23 conspecifics was delayed grunts duration increased, while when the arrival of the human was 24 delayed spectral parameters were comparable to those during isolation. This shows that vocal 25 expressions in piglets during anticipation are specific to the expected reward and to the time 26 duration between signal and the delivery of the reward. Vocal expression (time and spectral 27 features) is thus a good way to explore emotional state of piglets during anticipation of 28 challenging events. 29

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of (pseudo)-social contexts in their grunts

Villain

Hazard

Danglot

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…When the arrival of the partner was delayed, the duration of the piglets’ grunts increased for both partner types. Longer grunts had already been associated with a negative emotional valence 19 , 20 , 35 , which confirms that delaying the arrival of the partner led to a negative emotional state in comparison to the initial phase: a discrepancy from expectation that produced something like frustration. These results allow us to conclude that we did succeed in generating a specific anticipatory state during the tests which was expressed both behaviourally and vocally.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Thus, the quality of vocalisations could be a good indicator to evaluate anticipation in piglets. This might be even more relevant with the quality of grunts, which are expressed in negative and positive situations, and show a large variability in their acoustic properties 17 , 35 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of pseudo-social contexts in their grunts

Villain

Hazard

Danglot

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Emotions not only arise in reaction to an event but also while anticipating it, making this context a means of accessing the emotional value of events. Before now, anticipatory studies have rarely considered whether vocalisations carry information about emotional states. We studied both the grunts of piglets and their spatial behaviour as they anticipated two (pseudo)social events known to elicit positive emotions of different intensity: arrival of familiar conspecifics and arrival of a familiar human. Piglets spatially anticipated both pseudo-social contexts, and the spectro temporal features of grunts differed according to the emotional context. Piglets produced low-frequency grunts at a higher rate when anticipating conspecifics compared to anticipating a human. Spectral noise increased when piglets expected conspecifics, whereas the duration and frequency range increased when expecting a human. When the arrival of conspecifics was delayed, the grunt duration increased, whereas when the arrival of the human was delayed, the spectral parameters were comparable to those during isolation. This shows that vocal expressions in piglets during anticipation are specific to the expected reward. Vocal expressions—both their temporal and spectral features- are thus a good way to explore the emotional state of piglets during the anticipation of challenging events.

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“…Briefer et al 2019). However, it is not known if the vocal indicators revealed in previous studies are 32 valid across call types and contexts.…”

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confidence: 95%

Vocal expression of emotional valence in pigs across multiple call types and contexts

Briefer

Linhart

Policht

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Emotions, unlike mood, are short-lived reactions associated with specific events. They can be characterized by two main dimensions, their arousal (bodily activation) and valence (negative versus positive). Knowledge of the valence of emotions experienced by domestic and captive animals is crucial for assessing and improving their welfare, as it enables us to minimize the negative emotions that they might experience and to promote positive ones. Emotions can affect vocalizations directly or indirectly through the brain, lungs, larynx or vocal tract. As a result, vocal expression of emotions has been observed across species, and could serve as a non-invasive and potentially very reliable tool to assess animal emotions. In pigs (Sus scrofa), vocal expression of emotions has been relatively well studied. However, it is not known if the vocal indicators revealed in previous studies are valid across call types and contexts. To find this out, we conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of emotional valence on pig vocalizations, including calls recorded in the most common emotional situations encountered by pigs throughout their lives, from birth to slaughter. Our analyses revealed that pigs produced calls characterized by a higher center of gravity, a shorter duration, less noise (lower Wiener entropy), lower formants (measured using the formant dispersion) and LPC coefficients in positive compared to negative contexts. Overall, these vocal parameters could be very useful for developing automated methods to monitor pig welfare on-farm.

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Expression of emotional valence in pig closed-mouth grunts: Involvement of both source- and filter-related parameters

Cited by 38 publications

References 71 publications

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of (pseudo)-social contexts in their grunts

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of (pseudo)-social contexts in their grunts

Piglets vocally express the anticipation of pseudo-social contexts in their grunts

Vocal expression of emotional valence in pigs across multiple call types and contexts

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