Cognition and the human-animal relationship: a review of the sociocognitive skills of domestic mammals toward humans

Human ostension enhances attentiveness but not performance in domestic pigs

Humans convey their communicative intentions ostensively, e.g., calling others' name and establishing eye-contact. Also when interacting with animals, humans use ostension. In some companion-animal species, ostension increases attentiveness and/or alters how animals process human-provided information. However, it is unclear whether domesticated species selected for purposes other than companionship, like pigs, would also be sensitive. We investigated whether pigs are sensitive to human ostension and whether experience with humans modulates pigs' sensitivity. Fifty-four pigs with varying experience with humans completed ostensive and non-ostensive versions of (1) an object-choice task with directional cues, (2) an A-not-B-task, and (3) a detour task with human demonstrations. We expected pigs to respond to human ostension with increased attentiveness and possibly altered performance. Further, if sensitivity to ostension increases with experience with humans, more intensively socialized pigs should be more attentive and more likely to change in performance than less socialized ones. Results suggest that pigs were more attentive to ostensive than non-ostensive detour demonstrations. Otherwise ostension did not affect attentiveness or performance. This suggests that pigs might be less inclined than species selected for companionship to process human-provided information differently. Attentiveness, however, seems to be enhanced by ostension also in animals selected for production purposes. Moreover, we found that living conditions and experience, e.g., training, influenced pigs' attentiveness and performance, independently of ostension. These findings highlight the influence of training experience and enrichment on pigs' cognitive performance.

Nay to Prey: Challenging the View of Horses as a "Prey" Species

This paper challenges the prevalent characterization of domesticated horses as prey species that inherently view humans as predators. Drawing on evolutionary, ethological, and cognitive evidence, we propose the "mutualistic coevolution hypothesis", which posits that horses and humans have evolved a partnership marked by cooperation rather than fear. We critically assess the "prey hypothesis", emphasizing a predator-prey model, which dominates equine training and the literature, and we argue that it inadequately explains horses' morphology, behaviors, and cognitive capacities. Comparative studies on horses' socio-cognitive skills suggest that domestication has fostered emotional, behavioral, and cognitive adaptations supporting a human-horse bond. This review examines evidence from archaeological findings and experimental research on horses' responsiveness to human gestures, emotions, and social cues, underscoring their complex cognition and capacity for collaboration. Furthermore, morphological and behavioral analyses reveal inconsistencies in using orbital orientation or predation-related traits as evidence for categorizing horses as prey species. By emphasizing the coevolutionary dynamics underlying human-horse interactions, we advocate for replacing traditional training models centered on fear and submission with approaches that leverage horses' mutualistic and social nature. This perspective offers insights for enhancing horse welfare and improving human-equine relationships.

Familiar Dog or Familiar Person: Who Do Pet Dogs Best Synchronize with?

Behavioural synchronization in dogs has been examined separately at intraspecific and interspecific levels. This study is the first to compare dogs' behavioural synchronization and gaze behaviour when with a familiar person (with FP) compared to a familiar dog (with FD), while walking in an outdoor environment. Twenty dogs were observed under the two experimental conditions. We hypothesized that dogs would demonstrate stronger location and activity synchronization with an FD than with an FP due to similar locomotor patterns, while showing greater gaze attention towards the FP compared to the FD. Our hypothesis was partially confirmed. The results revealed a significantly shorter distance between dogs and the FD than between dogs and the FP. Dogs exhibited a smaller speed difference with the FD than with the FP, but only if they did not cohabit with other dogs. No significant differences were observed in body alignment or gaze behaviour between the two experimental conditions. Our results point to behavioural synchronization as a new instance of evolutionary convergence, as well as daily experiences, here cohabiting with other dogs, as a factor influencing dogs' ability to synchronize with individuals from different species. This study enhances our understanding of canine cognition in conspecific versus heterospecific contexts.

Dogs' Gazing Behavior to Humans Is Related to Their Liveliness, Aggressiveness, and the Emotional Comfort They Provide

Gazing toward humans is fundamental in dog-human communication. This study aimed to characterize companion dogs based on their gazing behavior and to explore the potential links between gazing, personality (liveliness, confidence, aggressiveness, and attachment), emotional comfort provided to the owners, and breed. We observed 171 dogs in an ambiguous situation involving a moving stimulus, a remote-controlled toy car and gathered additional data with questionnaires. Our behavior analysis, based on gaze frequency directed at the owner and experimenter, identified four distinct clusters of dogs: low gazers, experimenter-focused gazers, owner-focused gazers, and frequent gazers. We found that experimenter-focused gazers exhibited lower levels of liveliness than frequent gazers and were reported to be less aggressive than low gazers and frequent gazers. Owner-focused gazers provided more emotional comfort to their owners than low gazers. Regarding breeds, 56.5% of German shepherd dogs were low gazers, compared to only 5.3% of golden retrievers. Age, sex, neutered status, and approaching the stimulus were not associated with cluster membership. These results highlight the complexity of dog-human communication, suggesting that personality, emotional factors, and breed shape how dogs seek guidance and support from humans or express anxiety.

Do goats recognise humans cross-modally?

Recognition plays a key role in the social lives of gregarious species, enabling animals to distinguish among social partners and tailor their behaviour accordingly. As domesticated animals regularly interact with humans, as well as members of their own species, we might expect mechanisms used to discriminate between conspecifics to also apply to humans. Given that goats can combine visual and vocal cues to recognise one another, we investigated whether this cross-modal recognition extends to discriminating among familiar humans. We presented 26 goats (17 males and nine females) with facial photographs of familiar people and two repeated playbacks of a voice, either congruent (from the same person) or incongruent with that photograph (from a different person). When cues were incongruent, violating their expectations, we expected goats to show changes in physiological parameters and moreover, respond faster and for longer after playbacks. Accordingly, heart rate decreased as the playback sequence progressed, but only when the face and voice presented were incongruent. Heart rate variability was also affected by congruency, but we were unable to determine precisely where differences lay. However, goats showed no changes in time taken to respond, or how long they responded for (our primary variables of interest). We also found evidence to suggest that shifts in cardiac responses may not have been robust. Although our findings could imply that goats had successfully perceived differences in congruency between the visual and vocal identity information presented, further evidence is needed to determine whether they are capable of cross-modal recognition of humans.

Domesticated chickens interact more with humans and are more explorative than Red Junglefowl

Domesticated species are adapted to thrive in an environment with regular human interaction, and these interactions influence the development of a human-animal relationship. Chickens are the most abundant domesticated species, but their relationship with humans is poorly understood. A more comprehensive analysis of this relationship would provide valuable insight into their welfare needs. The present study compares the behavior of a domesticated and a non-domesticated breed of Gallus gallus in the presence of a familiar human. The domesticated breed was more active overall, and displayed more human contact-seeking behavior. These behavioral differences contribute to our understanding of the human-chicken relationship and could be helpful new insights for improving welfare of chickens in agricultural practice.

Human-directed sociability in the domestic dog: A Tinbergian approach

The motivation to interact with humans is central to dogs' domestication process. This review aims to provide a curated overview of the current knowledge about dogs' human-directed sociability using Tinbergen's four questions as a guiding framework. Firstly, we explore its evolutionary history, discussing wolf-dog differences in the socialization period, fear response, sociability, and attachment to elucidate the effect of domestication. Secondly, we address its ontogeny, highlighting the importance of early life experiences, examining findings on different dog populations to discern the effect of adult life experiences, and reporting changes across the lifespan. Thirdly, we analyse the adaptive value of the dog-human relationship, considering the effects of human association on different dog populations. Fourthly, we elaborate on the mechanisms involved in the dog-human relationship, discussing underlying cognitive and genetic processes and findings on the neurophysiological effects of interacting with humans. Finally, we identify issues and remaining questions that deserve more scrutiny and suggest innovative approaches that could be explored to improve our understanding of dogs' human-directed sociability.

The beauty of the beast: Suggestions to curb the excesses of dog breeding and restore animal welfare - Invited review

Dog. Specifically created to save its master's life. - (The dog is the ideal) Friend of man, (because it is his devoted slave) (source: Gustave Flaubert, Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues). But is man the best friend of the dog? This question is legitimate when we consider living situations to which modern domestic dogs are exposed. They often do not satisfy basic animal needs. In this narrative review, the author revisits the history of the dog's presence alongside humans, in the light of current knowledge. The modern dog (breed standards and their interests in canine research) and its breeding strategy, including extreme breeding, will then be given particular attention. Dysfunctional human psychological processes will be explored to make it possible to grasp why the breeding of the modern dog is undergoing such a transformation. Finally, based on these factual and conceptual insights, suggestions to improve canine welfare will be proposed. To be effective, all these must be assessed against real-world conditions.

Unveiling directional physiological coupling in human-horse interactions

This research investigates the human-horse bond, aiming to unveil the physiological mechanisms regulating interspecies interactions. We hypothesized observing a physiological synchronization in human-horse dynamics, akin to human interactions. Through time-frequency Granger causality analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) and behavioral data, this study reveals the establishment of bidirectional synchronization in HRV between humans and horses. The coupling directionality is influenced by behavior and familiarity. In exploration scenarios led by horses, bidirectional interactions occur, particularly with familiar individuals. Conversely, during human-led activities such as grooming, physiological connectivity direction varies based on the familiarity level. In addition, the methodology allows in-depth analysis of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system contributions, highlighting their intricate role in the human-horse relationship. Such a physiological coupling estimate, correlated with behavioral data, provides a quantitative tool applicable across contexts and species This holds significant promise for assessing animal-assisted therapies and for applications in sports and various animal-related domains.

Horses can learn to identify joy and sadness against other basic emotions from human facial expressions

Recently, horses and other domestic mammals have been shown to perceive and react to human emotional signals, with most studies focusing on joy and anger. In this study, we tested whether horses can learn to identify human joyful and sad expressions against other emotions. We used a touchscreen-based automated device that presented pairs of human portraits and distributed pellets when the horse touched the rewarded face. Six horses were trained to touch the sad face and 5 the joyful face. By the end of training, horses' performances at the group level were significantly higher than chance level, with higher scores for horses trained with the sad face. At the individual level, evidence of task learning varied among horses, which could be explained by individual variations in horses' ability to identify different human facial expressions or attention issues during the tests. In a generalization test, we introduced portraits of different humans than those presented during training. Horses trained with the joyful face performed better than chance, demonstrating generalization. Conversely, horses trained with the sad face did not. Horses also showed differences in learning performance according to the non-rewarded emotion, providing insights into horses' cognitive processing of facial expressions.

Human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions in animals under human care: A summary of stakeholder and researcher perceptions and future directions

Animals under human care are exposed to a potentially large range of both familiar and unfamiliar humans. Human-animal interactions vary across settings, and individuals, with the nature of the interaction being affected by a suite of different intrinsic and extrinsic factors. These interactions can be described as positive, negative or neutral. Across some industries, there has been a move towards the development of technologies to support or replace human interactions with animals. Whilst this has many benefits, there can also be challenges associated with increased technology use. A day-long Animal Welfare Research Network workshop was hosted at Harper Adams University, UK, with the aim of bringing together stakeholders and researchers (n = 38) from the companion, farm and zoo animal fields, to discuss benefits, challenges and limitations of human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions for animals under human care and create a list of future research priorities. The workshop consisted of four talks from experts within these areas, followed by break-out room discussions. This work is the outcome of that workshop. The key recommendations are that approaches to advancing the scientific discipline of machine-animal interactions in animals under human care should focus on: (1) interdisciplinary collaboration; (2) development of validated methods; (3) incorporation of an animal-centred perspective; (4) a focus on promotion of positive animal welfare states (not just avoidance of negative states); and (5) an exploration of ways that machines can support a reduction in the exposure of animals to negative human-animal interactions to reduce negative, and increase positive, experiences for animals.

Dogs outperform cats both in their testability and relying on human pointing gestures: a comparative study

The dog is a so far unique species to study interspecific communication and a promising evolutionary model for preverbal human communication. Recently cats were reported to show some similar skills to dogs. Here we directly compared both the testability and the success of companion dogs and cats in relying on human distal pointing gestures. Due to differences in their domestication, social and ecological background, and developmental processes, we expected better performance from dogs compared to cats. Using an object-choice task, cats made considerably fewer choices than dogs in the laboratory environment, and their tendency to make a choice declined during trials. They were slightly more testable at home, where their willingness to choose did not decrease over time. Dogs made more successful choices than cats, both at the group and individual level, irrespective of the type of the pointing gesture. Older cats were more successful. Despite the two species' rather similar role nowadays as human companions, our results support previous findings suggesting that, compared to the dog, the cat is a less ideal model to study some human communicative abilities in a laboratory environment.

Horses discriminate between human facial and vocal expressions of sadness and joy

Communication of emotions plays a key role in intraspecific social interactions and likely in interspecific interactions. Several studies have shown that animals perceive human joy and anger, but few studies have examined other human emotions, such as sadness. In this study, we conducted a cross-modal experiment, in which we showed 28 horses two soundless videos simultaneously, one showing a sad, and one a joyful human face. These were accompanied by either a sad or joyful voice. The number of horses whose first look to the video that was incongruent with the voice was longer than their first look to the congruent video was higher than chance, suggesting that horses could form cross-modal representations of human joy and sadness. Moreover, horses were more attentive to the videos of joy and looked at them for longer, more frequently, and more rapidly than the videos of sadness. Their heart rates tended to increase when they heard joy and to decrease when they heard sadness. These results show that horses are able to discriminate facial and vocal expressions of joy and sadness and may form cross-modal representations of these emotions; they also are more attracted to joyful faces than to sad faces and seem to be more aroused by a joyful voice than a sad voice. Further studies are needed to better understand how horses perceive the range of human emotions, and we propose that future experiments include neutral stimuli as well as emotions with different arousal levels but a same valence.

Llamas use social information from conspecifics and humans to solve a spatial detour task

Learning by observing others (i.e. social learning) is an important mechanism to reduce the costs of individual learning. Social learning can occur between conspecifics but also heterospecifics. Domestication processes might have changed the animals' sensitivity to human social cues and recent research indicates that domesticated species are particularly good in learning socially from humans. Llamas (Lama glama) are an interesting model species for that purpose. Llamas were bred as pack animals, which requires close contact and cooperative behaviour towards humans. We investigated whether llamas learn socially from trained conspecifics and humans in a spatial detour task. Subjects were required to detour metal hurdles arranged in a V-shape to reach a food reward. Llamas were more successful in solving the task after both a human and a conspecific demonstrated the task compared to a control condition with no demonstrator. Individual differences in behaviour (i.e. food motivation and distraction) further affected the success rate. Animals did not necessarily use the same route as the demonstrators, thus, indicating that they adopted a more general detour behaviour. These results suggest that llamas can extract information from conspecific and heterospecific demonstrations; hence, broadening our knowledge of domesticated species that are sensitive to human social behaviour.

Wild mockingbirds distinguish among familiar humans

Although individuals of some species appear able to distinguish among individuals of a second species, an alternative explanation is that individuals of the first species may simply be distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar individuals of the second species. In that case, they would not be learning unique characteristics of any given heterospecific, as commonly assumed. Here we show that female Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) can quickly learn to distinguish among different familiar humans, flushing sooner from their nest when approached by people who pose increasingly greater threats. These results demonstrate that a common small songbird has surprising cognitive abilities, which likely facilitated its widespread success in human-dominated habitats. More generally, urban wildlife may be more perceptive of differences among humans than previously imagined.

A missense mutation in RRM1 contributes to animal tameness

The increased tameness to reduce avoidance of human in wild animals has been long proposed as the key step of animal domestication. The tameness is a complex behavior trait and largely determined by genetic factors. However, the underlying genetic mutations remain vague and how they influence the animal behaviors is yet to be explored. Behavior tests of a wild-domestic hybrid goat population indicate the locus under strongest artificial selection during domestication may exert a huge effect on the flight distance. Within this locus, only one missense mutation RRM1I241V which was present in the early domestic goat ~6500 years ago. Genome editing of RRM1I241V in mice showed increased tameness and sociability and reduced anxiety. These behavioral changes induced by RRM1I241V were modulated by the alternation of activity of glutamatergic synapse and some other synapse-related pathways. This study established a link between RRM1I241V and tameness, demonstrating that the complex behavioral change can be achieved by mutations under strong selection during animal domestication.

What drives horse success at following human-given cues? An investigation of handler familiarity and living conditions

Cues such as the human pointing gesture, gaze or proximity to an object are widely used in behavioural studies to evaluate animals' abilities to follow human-given cues. Many domestic mammals, such as horses, can follow human cues; however, factors influencing their responses are still unclear. We assessed the performance of 57 horses at a two-way choice task testing their ability to follow cues of either a familiar (N = 28) or an unfamiliar informant (N = 29). We investigated the effects of the length of the relationship between the horse and a familiar person (main caregiver), their social environment (living alone, in dyads, or in groups) and their physical environment (living in stalls/paddocks, alternating between paddocks and pastures, or living full time in pastures). We also controlled for the effects of horses' age and sex. Our results showed that horses' success rate at the task was not affected by the familiarity of the informant and did not improve with the relationship length with the familiar informant but did increase with the age of the horses. Horses living in groups had better success than the ones kept either in dyads or alone. Finally, horses housed in small paddocks had lower success than those living on pasture. These results indicate that with age, horses get better at following human-given indications regardless of who the human informant is and that an appropriate living and social environment could contribute to the development of socio-cognitive skills towards humans. Therefore, such aspects should be considered in studies evaluating animal behaviour.

Horses cross-modally recognize women and men

Several studies have shown that horses have the ability to cross-modally recognize humans by associating their voice with their physical appearance. However, it remains unclear whether horses are able to differentiate humans according to different criteria, such as the fact that they are women or men. Horses might recognize some human characteristics, such as sex, and use these characteristics to classify them into different categories. The aim of this study was to explore whether domesticated horses are able to cross-modally recognize women and men according to visual and auditory cues, using a preferential looking paradigm. We simultaneously presented two videos of women and men's faces, while playing a recording of a human voice belonging to one of these two categories through a loudspeaker. The results showed that the horses looked significantly more towards the congruent video than towards the incongruent video, suggesting that they are able to associate women's voices with women's faces and men's voices with men's faces. Further investigation is necessary to determine the mechanism underlying this recognition, as it might be interesting to determine which characteristics horses use to categorize humans. These results suggest a novel perspective that could allow us to better understand how horses perceive humans.

Discrimination of cat-directed speech from human-directed speech in a population of indoor companion cats (Felis catus)

In contemporary western cultures, most humans talk to their pet companions. Speech register addressed to companion animals shares common features with speech addressed to young children, which are distinct from the typical adult-directed speech (ADS). The way dogs respond to dog-directed speech (DDS) has raised scientists' interest. In contrast, much less is known about how cats perceive and respond to cat-directed speech (CDS). The primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether cats are more responsive to CDS than ADS. Secondarily, we seek to examine if the cats' responses to human vocal stimuli would differ when it was elicited by their owner or by a stranger. We performed playback experiments and tested a cohort of 16 companion cats in a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, which allows for the measurement of subjects' reactions without extensive training. Here, we report new findings that cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans, when sentences are uttered by their owners. When hearing sentences uttered by strangers, cats did not appear to discriminate between ADS and CDS. These findings bring a new dimension to the consideration of human-cat relationship, as they imply the development of a particular communication into human-cat dyads, that relies upon experience. We discuss these new findings in the light of recent literature investigating cats' sociocognitive abilities and human-cat attachment. Our results highlight the importance of one-to-one relationships for cats, reinforcing recent literature regarding the ability for cats and humans to form strong bonds.

Horses form cross-modal representations of adults and children

Recently, research on domestic mammals' sociocognitive skills toward humans has been prolific, allowing us to better understand the human-animal relationship. For example, horses have been shown to distinguish human beings on the basis of photographs and voices and to have cross-modal mental representations of individual humans and human emotions. This leads to questions such as the extent to which horses can differentiate human attributes such as age. Here, we tested whether horses discriminate human adults from children. In a cross-modal paradigm, we presented 31 female horses with two simultaneous muted videos of a child and an adult saying the same neutral sentence, accompanied by the sound of an adult's or child's voice speaking the sentence. The horses looked significantly longer at the videos that were incongruent with the heard voice than at the congruent videos. We conclude that horses can match adults' and children's faces and voices cross-modally. Moreover, their heart rates increased during children's vocalizations but not during adults'. This suggests that in addition to having mental representations of adults and children, horses have a stronger emotional response to children's voices than adults' voices.

Horses discriminate human body odors between fear and joy contexts in a habituation-discrimination protocol

Animals are widely believed to sense human emotions through smell. Chemoreception is the most primitive and ubiquitous sense, and brain regions responsible for processing smells are among the oldest structures in mammalian evolution. Thus, chemosignals might be involved in interspecies communication. The communication of emotions is essential for social interactions, but very few studies have clearly shown that animals can sense human emotions through smell. We used a habituation-discrimination protocol to test whether horses can discriminate between human odors produced while feeling fear vs. joy. Horses were presented with sweat odors of humans who reported feeling fear or joy while watching a horror movie or a comedy, respectively. A first odor was presented twice in successive trials (habituation), and then, the same odor and a novel odor were presented simultaneously (discrimination). The two odors were from the same human in the fear or joy condition; the experimenter and the observer were blinded to the condition. Horses sniffed the novel odor longer than the repeated odor, indicating they discriminated between human odors produced in fear and joy contexts. Moreover, differences in habituation speed and asymmetric nostril use according to odor suggest differences in the emotional processing of the two odors.

Social learning in a nocturnal marsupial: is it a possum-ability?

Social learning can reduce the costs associated with trial-and-error learning. There is speculation that social learning could contribute to trap and bait avoidance in invasive species like the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)-a marsupial for which social learning has not previously been investigated. In large outdoor pens, we presented wild-caught 'demonstrator' possums with puzzle devices containing an attractive food reward; 2 of 8 demonstrators accessed the reward the first night the puzzle was presented and another three succeeded on later nights. Meanwhile, 'observer' possums in adjacent pens watched the demonstrators for five nights and then were given the opportunity to solve the puzzle themselves; 15 of 15 succeeded on their first night (a highly significant improvement). This experiment thus provides strong evidence of social learning by common brushtail possums. Future research should investigate whether information about aversive stimuli (such as traps and toxic baits) can similarly be transmitted between possums by social learning; if so, this could have important implications for possum pest control.

Cross-species discrimination of vocal expression of emotional valence by Equidae and Suidae

BACKGROUND

Discrimination and perception of emotion expression regulate interactions between conspecifics and can lead to emotional contagion (state matching between producer and receiver) or to more complex forms of empathy (e.g., sympathetic concern). Empathy processes are enhanced by familiarity and physical similarity between partners. Since heterospecifics can also be familiar with each other to some extent, discrimination/perception of emotions and, as a result, emotional contagion could also occur between species.

RESULTS

Here, we investigated if four species belonging to two ungulate Families, Equidae (domestic and Przewalski's horses) and Suidae (pigs and wild boars), can discriminate between vocalizations of opposite emotional valence (positive or negative), produced not only by conspecifics, but also closely related heterospecifics and humans. To this aim, we played back to individuals of these four species, which were all habituated to humans, vocalizations from a unique set of recordings for which the valence associated with vocal production was known. We found that domestic and Przewalski's horses, as well as pigs, but not wild boars, reacted more strongly when the first vocalization played was negative compared to positive, regardless of the species broadcasted.

CONCLUSIONS

Domestic horses, Przewalski's horses and pigs thus seem to discriminate between positive and negative vocalizations produced not only by conspecifics, but also by heterospecifics, including humans. In addition, we found an absence of difference between the strength of reaction of the four species to the calls of conspecifics and closely related heterospecifics, which could be related to similarities in the general structure of their vocalization. Overall, our results suggest that phylogeny and domestication have played a role in cross-species discrimination/perception of emotions.

Pet-directed speech improves horses' attention toward humans

In a recent experiment, we showed that horses are sensitive to pet-directed speech (PDS), a kind of speech used to talk to companion animals that is characterized by high pitch and wide pitch variations. When talked to in PDS rather than adult-directed speech (ADS), horses reacted more favorably during grooming and in a pointing task. However, the mechanism behind their response remains unclear: does PDS draw horses’ attention and arouse them, or does it make their emotional state more positive? In this study, we used an innovative paradigm in which female horses watched videos of humans speaking in PDS or ADS to better understand this phenomenon. Horses reacted differently to the videos of PDS and ADS: they were significantly more attentive and their heart rates increased significantly more during PDS than during ADS. We found no difference in the expressions of negative or positive emotional states during PDS and ADS videos. Thus, we confirm that horses’ perception of humans can be studied by means of video projections, and we conclude that PDS attracts attention and has an arousing effect in horses, with consequences on the use of PDS in daily interactions with them.

Review: From human-animal relation practice research to the development of the livestock farmer's activity: an ergonomics-applied ethology interaction

Animal husbandry and working conditions for livestock farmers have changed significantly in recent years as agriculture has been exposed to economic as well as health, environmental and ethical challenges. The idea of interdependent welfare between humans and animals is more relevant now than ever. Here, we innovatively bridge two disciplines-ergonomics and applied ethology-to achieve an in-depth observational understanding of real husbandry practice (by farmers, inseminators, vets) at work. Ergonomics aims to gain a detailed understanding of human activity in its physical, sensitive and cognitive dimensions in relation to a task. It also aims to transform work situations through a systemic approach drawing on multiple levers for change. Here, we examine how this analysis holds up to the inclusion of animals as an integral component of the livestock farmer's work situation. Applied ethology studies behaviours in animals managed by humans. It aims to understand how these animals perceive their environment, including how they construct their relationship with the livestock farmer. This paper proposes an original conception of the human-animal relationship in animal husbandry that employs core structural concepts from both disciplines. From an ergonomic point of view, we address the human-animal relations by examining the relationship between 'prescribed' and real work practices, between work and personal life situation, between professional task and human activity. On the applied ethology side of the equation, the human-animal relationship is a process built through communication and regular interactions between two 'partners' who know each other. The goal is to understand how each partner perceives the other according to their multimodal sensory world and their cognitive and emotional capacities, and to predict the outcome of future interactions. We cross-analyse these scientific views to show, based on examples, how and in what way they can intersect to bring better analysis of these human-animal relationships. We reflect on common working hypotheses and situated observational approaches based on indicators (behaviour and animal and human welfare/health). This analysis prompts us to clarify what human-animal relational practice means in animal husbandry work, i.e. a strategy employed by the livestock farmer to work safely and efficiently in a healthy environment, where the animal is treated as a partner in the relationship. In this perspective, the challenge is for the livestock farmer's activity to co-build a positive relationship and avoid being subject to this one.