ArticlePloS one2020
Pessimistic dairy calves are more vulnerable to pain-induced anhedonia.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Calves disbudded with local nerve block and analgesic show conditioned place aversion two days later but not in the hours post-disbudding.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- From welfare indicator to welfare contributor: the role of play in building flexibility and resilience in captive animals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Medicated Meloxicam Pellets Reduce Some Indicators of Pain in Disbudded Dairy Calves.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Effects of reward type and previous social experience on cognitive testing outcomes of weaned dairy calves.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Pain and pessimism affect calves' play behaviours post-disbudding.Discover animals · 2025Article
- Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- Article
- Pain pathophysiology and pharmacology of cattle: how improved understanding can enhance pain prevention, mitigation, and welfare.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Exploring the effect of pain on response to reward loss in calves.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Neuroimmune Interface and Chronic Pain Through the Lens of Production Animals.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Postpartum Stressors Cause a Reduction in Mechanical Brush Use in Dairy Cows.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- What is pain: Are cognitive and social features core components?Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pain induces deficits in appreciation of rewards (i.e. anhedonia) and variation in response to pain may be partly explained by individual differences in general expectations (i.e. optimism). Dairy calves are routinely subjected to painful procedures such as hot-iron disbudding. We tested if female Holstein calves (n = 17) display signs of anhedonia (as evidenced by reduced consumption of a sweet solution) after hot-iron disbudding (performed under general and local anesthesia), and whether individual differences in optimism explain the variation in this response. Individual variation in optimism was measured using responses to two judgment bias tests (performed when calves were 25 d old), and anhedonia was measured by comparing consumption of a sweet solution before and after hot-iron disbudding. We found that intake of the sweet solution declined (by mean ± SD: 48.4 ± 44.3%) on the day after disbudding, and that more pessimistic calves were more affected. Sweet solution consumption did not return to baseline for the duration of the study (i.e. 5 days). Calves reduced their intake of a sweet solution after hot-iron disbudding, consistent with pain-induced anhedonia, and more pessimistic calves showed stronger evidence of anhedonia, suggesting that they were more affected by the procedure. However, our results cannot rule out the possibility that calf responses were driven by anorexia.
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