This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Training & Conditioning Horses » Behavior and Training » Modifying a Horses Behavior: Conditioned Responses »
  Discussion on Research Summary: Visual Laterality and Emotions in Horses
Author Message
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008 - 10:53 am:

This report suggests horses preferentially use their left eye to veiw a image with a negative stimulus and their right eye to view novel (new) images. There was no preference for positive images. However these preferences were not strong. From a training standpoint could this mean horses may view a novel stimulus introduced on the left side as more positive than if introduced on the left? This is interesting and not the first time we have seen reports of laterality when horses are dealing with visual stimului, for more see Training & Conditioning Horses » Behavior and Training » Working Around Horses Safely » Research Study: Asymmetry of flight and escape turning responses in horses .
DrO



Physiol Behav. 2008 Mar 12;

Laterality and emotions: Visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) differs with objects' emotional value.

De Boyer Des Roches A, Richard-Yris MA, Henry S, Ezzaouia M, Hausberger M.

UMR CNRS 6552 Ethologie-Evolution-Ecologie, Universite de Rennes 1, Avenue du General Leclerc, Campus de Beaulieu, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France.

Lateralization of emotions has received great attention in the last decades, both in humans and animals, but little interest has been given to side bias in perceptual processing. Here, we investigated the influence of the emotional valence of stimuli on visual and olfactory explorations by horses, a large mammalian species with two large monocular visual fields and almost complete decussation of optic fibres. We confronted 38 Arab mares to three objects with either a positive, negative or neutral emotional valence (novel object). The results revealed a gradient of exploration of the 3 objects according to their emotional value and a clear asymmetry in visual exploration. When exploring the novel object, mares used preferentially their right eyes, while they showed a slight tendency to use their left eyes for the negative object. No asymmetry was evidenced for the object with the positive valence. A trend for an asymmetry in olfactory investigation was also observed. Our data confirm the role of the left hemisphere in assessing novelty in horses like in many vertebrate species and the possible role of the right hemisphere in processing negative emotional responses. Our findings also suggest the importance of both hemispheres in the processing positive emotions. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate clearly that the emotional valence of a stimulus induces a specific visual lateralization pattern.
Member:
ekaufman

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008 - 9:29 am:

So DrO, o you think it's significant to the study that these are adult mares who have likely been handled mostly from their left sides?

Would it be a better study to repeat the exercise with unhandled horses, or with youngsters that were somehow raised in a laterally-neutral way?

It's hard not notice the likelihood that the vast majority of human intervention on this study group would have come from the left, even since they were small. I just don't know whether that impacts the study.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jun 19, 2008 - 7:47 am:

I think regular horsemanship could confound the results since the horses are trained in a "lateral manner". But there is a basis for assuming laterality of learning and identification from examining other species. We will have to wait to see how this issue plays out.
DrO
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 2:03 am:

Here is a bit more on this subject:

Anim Cogn. 2009 Jul 17.
Visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) interacting with humans.

Farmer K, Krueger K, Byrne RW.

Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, Scotland, UK.

Most horses have a side on which they are easier to handle and a direction they favour when working on a circle, and recent studies have suggested a correlation between emotion and visual laterality when horses observe inanimate objects. As such lateralisation could provide important clues regarding the horse's cognitive processes, we investigated whether horses also show laterality in association with people. We gave horses the choice of entering a chute to left or right, with and without the passive, non-interactive presence of a person unknown to them. The left eye was preferred for scanning under both conditions, but significantly more so when a person was present. Traditionally, riders handle horses only from the left, so we repeated the experiment with horses specifically trained on both sides. Again, there was a consistent preference for left eye scanning in the presence of a person, whether known to the horses or not. We also examined horses interacting with a person, using both traditionally and bilaterally trained horses. Both groups showed left eye preference for viewing the person, regardless of training and test procedure. For those horses tested under both passive and interactive conditions, the left eye was preferred significantly more during interaction. We suggest that most horses prefer to use their left eye for assessment and evaluation, and that there is an emotional aspect to the choice which may be positive or negative, depending on the circumstances. We believe these results have important practical implications and that emotional laterality should be taken into account in training methods.
Member:
mrose

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 6:07 am:

Interesting how the brain, equine and human, works. What would be examples of how you would use this knowledge when training or working with your horse, aside from working with both side of the horse?
Member:
sodmonst

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 6:46 am:

Thank you for sharing this information, DrO. I'm curious about what I'll notice now with my observably expressive horse. I noticed that he turns his head this way or that so that he can look at me with one eye, that he uses different eyes at different times, and wondered if that might have significance. I'm going to take a little pad and start keeping track in writing.
Member:
imogen

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 8:58 am:

Not sure if this is relevant but might be of interest. Current theory on handedness in humans is that the development of right-handedness (or what is known as the right-shift gene which causes handedness unless interfered with, left handedness/ambidexterity is an absence of right handed preference rather than a positive thing) occurred simultaneously with the development of language about 100,000 years ago. No langugage, no need for the right shift gene to allow the left side of the brain to specialise on language.

Horses of course don't have complex language although as we all know they do body language bigtime. I wonder if they use left eye for pattern recognition (which would logically tend to be what might develop into language) and right eye for movement/depth speed perception. I don't know, I've never looked it up.

Imogen
Member:
imogen

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 9:00 am:

... and of course there is a sex difference in handedness in humans which has led to all kinds of weird and wonderful theories (left handedness being rarer in females). Wonder if the same applies to horses?

Imogen
Member:
mrose

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 19, 2009 - 11:35 am:

Very interesting stuff. Is the left side of the equine brain specializing in language? As Imogen says, they are certainly a comunicative species, even if not always vocal. From curiosity, it would be interesting to know if sex plays any role,too.

Imogen, and here I had thought being ambidexterous was because I'm special; turns out I'm just lacking!
Member:
vickiann

Posted on Thursday, Aug 20, 2009 - 10:39 am:

No, Sara -- Certainly not lacking. My Grandmother was ambidextrous and was one of the finest individuals who I have ever known. All goodness and light, and talented too.

I find this information fascinating and I certainly know that I have seen horses turn their heads to look at me, objects or distances with a particular eye, but never paid enough attention to attach any significance to it. Now I will pay closer attention.

There is so incredibly much to learn about these amazingly complex creatures.

Thanks Dr. O for bringing us this information.
Member:
mrose

Posted on Thursday, Aug 20, 2009 - 11:48 am:

Isn't that the truth!!
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC