Habit Formation and the Effect of Repeated Stress Exposures on Cognitive Flexibility Learning in Horses

ABSTRACT:

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Horse training exposes horses to many difficult learning challenges, including tasks that run counter to their natural behaviour and research from neuroscience can be used to understand how horses respond to these learning challenges. Horses can also quickly develop habits, however if the habit is undesirable, the horse may be subjected to retraining where it must learn to suppress the unwanted behaviour and learn a new response. This is called cognitive flexibility and is underpinned by complex neural processes and can be impaired by exposure to repeated or chronic stress. We trained horses to acquire habit-like responses in one of two industry-style aversive instrumental learning scenarios (moving away from the stimulus-instinctual-IS or moving towards the stimulu

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PROVIDER: S-EPMC9597801 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature