Previous research
My previous research has focused on investigating how animal behaviour, cognition, emotion and physiology underpin animal welfare, and how we can use this knowledge to advance animal welfare in a range of different species. My PhD research focused on feeding motivation and hunger, the underlying endocrinology and the relationship with animal welfare. My postdoctoral research aimed to understand how the HPA-axis (the stress system) and the opioid system regulate animal cognition and emotion.
Current research
I have two main lines of research at SLU. The first is to get a better understanding of how the gut-brain axis influences animal behaviour and cognition. There are trillions of microbes living in an animals gut, and these are important for normal and healthy brain development and functioning. My research focuses on how the composition and diversity of the gut microbiota alter animal behaviour, cognition and physiology. I am currently investigating how we can improve animal welfare by altering the gut microbiota, for example, by supplementing the animal’s diet with live beneficial bacteria (probiotics) or fermentable fibres that support the growth of beneficial bacteria (prebiotics).
The second line of research is the refinement and development of cognitive methods to assess emotional states in animals. Measuring emotions in animals is difficult due to the inaccessible subjectivity of the emotional experience, and so we rely on indirect behavioural, physiological and cognitive measures associated with the emotional state. Developing better ways to assess animal emotional states could help design improved management practices and interventions to address common welfare concerns. I am currently adapting cognitive test from human psychology to animals, so that we can investigate if similar cognitive processes also underpin emotional states in animals.
Within this last project, I am working with dogs that show separation-related behaviours (often called separation anxiety). These dogs feel extremely stressed when left alone at home, and will whine, bark, chew up the furniture or urinate inside the house when their owners are away. This is one of the most common behavioural problems in dogs, but it is currently not well understood why these dogs struggle so much with being alone. By developing novel ways to measure emotions, we can obtain novel insights into the minds of dogs with separation-related behaviours, so that we can find better ways to help these dogs.
