ArticleCurrent biology : CB2020
Rat 50 kHz calls reflect graded tickling-induced positive emotion.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Preclinical models for evaluating psychedelics in the treatment of major depressive disorder.British journal of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Machine learning algorithms can predict emotional valence across ungulate vocalizations.iScience · 2025Article
- Stage 2 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats.F1000Research · 2025Article
- From emotional arousal to executive action. Role of the prefrontal cortex.Brain structure & function · 2024Review
- You are How You Eat: Foraging Behavior as a Potential Novel Marker of Rat Affective State.Affective science · 2024Article
- Disentangling developmental effects of play aspects in rat rough-and-tumble play.Biology letters · 2024Article
- Fantastic beasts and how to study them: rethinking experimental animal behavior.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Examining personality dimensions in rats using a caregiver questionnaire.Applied animal behaviour science · 2024Article
- A mild impairment in reversal learning in a bowl-digging substrate deterministic task but not other cognitive tests in the Dlg2+/- rat model of genetic risk for psychiatric disorder.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2023Article
- Effects of reduced kinematic and social play experience on affective appraisal of human-rat play in rats.Frontiers in zoology · 2023Article
- Classification of multiple emotional states from facial expressions in head-fixed mice using a deep learning-based image analysis.PloS one · 2023Article
- Non-invasive assessment of positive affective state using infra-red thermography in rats.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2023Article
- Who's laughing? Play, tickling and ultrasonic vocalizations in rats.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Sex differences in 50 kHz call subtypes emitted during tickling-induced playful behaviour in rats.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The use of ball pits and playpens in laboratory Lister Hooded male rats induces ultrasonic vocalisations indicating a more positive affective state and can reduce the welfare impacts of aversive procedures.Laboratory animals · 2022Article
- The Neurobiology of Behavior and Its Applicability for Animal Welfare: A Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Stage 1 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats.F1000Research · 2022Article
- Biological Functions of Rat Ultrasonic Vocalizations, Arousal Mechanisms, and Call Initiation.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Crying With Laughter: Adapting the Tickling Protocol to Address Individual Differences Among Rats in Their Response to Playful Handling.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Positive animal emotion (affect) is a key component of good animal welfare [1] and plays an important role in stress-coping and resilience [2]. Methods for reliably inducing and measuring positive affect are critical, but both have been limited in availability. In rats, one promising way of inducing positive affective states is by human-simulated rough and tumble play or 'tickling' [3,4]. However, in humans tickling induces both pleasure and displeasure, and neither an established non-verbal indicator of positive affect, the Duchenne smile, nor laughter detects this variation [5,6]. Rats also show individual differences in response to tickling [7], and this variation needs to be readily quantified if we are to ensure that tickling is only implemented where it generates positive affect. Here, we use a validated and objective measure of affective valence, the affective bias test [8], to show that 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations provide a quantifiable and graded measure of positive affect that accurately reflects the positive state induced by this human-rat interaction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.