The study of facial micro-expressions in domestic animals (Equus caballus)
Description:Micro-expressions are facial movements expressed less than 500 milliseconds. They are associated with different emotions as disgust, anger, joy, etc. Micro-expressions are not under our voluntary control so these expressions cannot be simulated, which is not the case with long lasting facial expressions (Bhatnagar et al., 2016). It is interesting to analyse them because they could give different information. Up to now, micro expressionshave been explored a lot in humans but a few in
non-human animals.
This internship aims to investigate whether horses have or not some facial micro-expressions, and if they express them according to a socio-cognitive context. A first step will be to make a literature review in humans on facial expressions and micro-expressions, and then a comparison in domesticated animals (dogs and horses). This comparison will be complete during the internship with the data analysed. The data will be analysed from recordingswhich have already been done, in a context of interspecific communication with a human experimenter. If necessary, additional recordings could be done.
This investigation could be compared with another one done on dogs, by another person during the same time period.
Time:6 months, between January and July
Requested profile: We are searching for a person in second year of amaster’s degree, interested in human-animal relationship, who had some experienceswith horses. The person should know how to study animal behaviour, horses’ one preferentially.
Contact: Sophie PELLON, sophie.pellon@ulb.ac.be, Faculty of Medecine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (BELGIUM)