Mota-Rojas Daniel, Whittaker Alexandra L, Coria-Avila Genaro A, Martínez-Burnes Julio, Mora-Medina Patricia, Domínguez-Oliva Adriana, Hernández-Avalos Ismael, Olmos-Hernández Adriana, Verduzco-Mendoza Antonio, Casas-Alvarado Alejandro, Grandin Temple
Neurophysiology, Behavior and Animal Welfare Assessment, DPAA, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), Mexico City, Mexico.
School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Roseworthy Campus, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA, Australia.
Front Vet Sci. 2025 Mar 4;12:1546719. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1546719. eCollection 2025.
The growing interest in managing and recognizing pain in animals has led to the search for more sensitive methods to evaluate it, especially because some species conceal any visible changes associated with pain or are not easily assessed. Research has shown that an animal's facial expression changes when exposed to painful stimuli. Thus, developing several pain scales (grimace scales) in species such as horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, donkeys, rabbits, rats, mice, and cats has helped to improve the study of pain in veterinary medicine. The possibility of using facial expression as an indicator of pain is due to the direct relationship between the activation of different regions of the Central Nervous System such as the somatosensory cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus, and their connections with the motor cortex to elicit motor responses including the movement of facial muscles. The present review aims to discuss the neurobiological association between acute pain and facial expressions in animals. It will analyze the importance of facial expression characterization and the use of grimace scales in farm, companion, and laboratory species.
人们对动物疼痛管理和识别的兴趣日益浓厚，这促使人们寻找更敏感的方法来评估疼痛，特别是因为一些物种会掩盖与疼痛相关的任何明显变化，或者不容易进行评估。研究表明，动物在受到疼痛刺激时面部表情会发生变化。因此，在马、牛、猪、羊、驴、兔、大鼠、小鼠和猫等物种中开发几种疼痛量表（鬼脸量表）有助于改进兽医学中的疼痛研究。将面部表情用作疼痛指标的可能性源于中枢神经系统不同区域（如体感皮层、前额叶皮层、杏仁核、海马体和下丘脑）的激活及其与运动皮层的连接之间的直接关系，以引发包括面部肌肉运动在内的运动反应。本综述旨在讨论动物急性疼痛与面部表情之间的神经生物学关联。它将分析面部表情特征描述以及鬼脸量表在农场动物、伴侣动物和实验动物中的应用的重要性。
