| Title: |
Horses’ attentional characteristics differ according to the type of work |
| Authors: |
Rochais, Celine; Stomp, Mathilde; Sébilleau, Mélissa; Houdebine, Mathilde; Henry, Séverine; Hausberger, Martine |
| Contributors: |
Ethologie animale et humaine (EthoS); Université de Caen Normandie (UNICAEN); Normandie Université (NU)-Normandie Université (NU)-Université de Rennes (UR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); This work was supported by a doctoral grant from the French Research Ministry (to CR), a grant from the Institut Français du Cheval et de l’Equitation (IFCE) and funding from the ‘Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique’ (CNRS) to M.H. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analyses, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. |
| Source: |
ISSN: 1932-6203. |
| Publisher Information: |
HAL CCSD; Public Library of Science |
| Publication Year: |
2022 |
| Collection: |
Université de Rennes 1: Publications scientifiques (HAL) |
| Subject Terms: |
[SCCO]Cognitive science |
| Description: |
International audience ; Attention is a central process of cognition and influences the execution of daily tasks. In humans, different types of work require different attentional skills and sport performance is associated with the ability to attention shift. Attention towards humans varies in dogs used for different types of work. Whether this variation is due to the recruitment of individuals suitable for specific types of work, or to the characteristics of the work, remains unclear. In the present study, we hypothesized that domestic horses (Equus caballus) trained for different types of work would also demonstrate different attentional characteristics but we also explored other possible factors of influence such as age, sex and breed. We exposed more than sixty horses, working in 4 different disciplines, and living in two types of housing conditions, to a visual attention test (VAT) performed in the home environment. Individual attentional characteristics in the test were not significantly influenced by age, sex, breed or conditions of life but were strongly related to the type of work. Riding school horses showed longer sequences and less fragmented attention than all other horses, including sport horses living in the same conditions. Interestingly, sport performance was correlated with attention fragmentation during the test in eventing horses, which may need more attention shifting during the competitions. Working conditions may influence attention characteristics indirectly through welfare, or directly through selection and training. Our study opens new lines of thought on the determinants of animal cognition and its plasticity and constitutes a further step towards understanding the interrelationship between working conditions and cognition. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/35877616; PUBMED: 35877616 |
| DOI: |
10.1371/journal.pone.0269974 |
| Availability: |
https://hal.science/hal-03777274; https://hal.science/hal-03777274/document; https://hal.science/hal-03777274/file/journal.pone.0269974.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269974 |
| Rights: |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ ; info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.4C5C4FFC |
| Database: |
BASE |