Cue the Cat: The Visual Dimension of Flavor …pfac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/N_Rawson...Cue...
Transcript of Cue the Cat: The Visual Dimension of Flavor …pfac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/N_Rawson...Cue...
Cue the Cat: The Visual Dimension of Flavor Preference
I. Introduction
II. History & Methods
III. Representative projects in progress:
I. Licking & Liking
II. Palatability & Decisiveness
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Nancy E. Rawson, Ph.D.Senior DirectorBasic Research & [email protected]
What is Behavior?
Behavior:
the actions and reactions of whole
organisms, including covert actions
like thinking and feeling
Learning:
acquisition, maintenance, and
change of an organism’s behavior as
a result of life'me events → How it
interacts with its environment
Why Measure Behavior?
If you know what to look for, animals tell you very quickly and
very precisely What they like and Why they like it!
Better insight into food choice by pets
Discriminating = drawing fine distinctions
Reveal behaviors owners may interpret as “liking”
Taste reactivity
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Behavioral Research: Taste Reactivity
Outcome:
• Identify ‘liking’ or ‘rejecting’
• Identify responses that owners
may interpret as “enjoyment”
Methods:
• Acquire video under controlled conditions
• Train coders to analyze videos with high reliability
• Stimulus delivery method adapted to species, question
Video analysis of oro-facial and body movements & sequences
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Taste Reactivity: Characteristic responses to positive/negative taste stimuli
e.g., lips pursed, eyes neutral/relaxed, licking lips
e.g., open mouth, furrowed brow, lip corners down
Sucrose
Quinine
olive lemon
vegemite
Aim: Describe comparable reactions in cats and dogs
Taste Quality vs. Taste Experience: Positive/Negative
Goals
Apply taste reactivity methods to:
• Understand what flavor stimuli cats respond to
positively or negatively.
• Reveal the sensory responses that are driving flavor
preference.
• Identify flavor systems that promote behaviors that
are interpreted as ‘liking’ by pet owner, without
promoting over-consumption.
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� In-home tests
� 2 trials/test; 2 tests/cat
� Each trial: 10 min exposure, 5 min post-exposure
� One food at a time:
• NF = normal food
• XF = experimental food
oMFF= more flavorful food
oLFF= less flavorful food
Recorded: total duration, frequencies,
sequences of patterns
Taste Reactivity in Cats: Van den Bos et. al, 2000
Group State Fed Order of presentation
A (n=5) satiated 1-3x/day NF then XF (MFF or LFF)
B (n=8) hungry 1-3x/day XF (MFF or LFF) then NF
C (n=10) satiated ad lib XF (MFF or LFF) then NF
Sequence Starts with Contained
MFF
Consumption
lick/sniff feeding bowl (or sniff
floor)
oral and grooming
behavior
LFF Refusal lick/sniff food lick nose
LFF Consumptionlick/sniff feeding bowl (or sniff
floor)grooming & lick nose
Results – Van den Bos et al., 2000
• Behaviors correlated with consumption
vs. rejection.
• In hungry cats, LFF produced reactions
similar to MFF.
• When satiated, MFF produced
reactions similar to LFF.
• When cats chose to eat the LFF,
sequences were similar to those
observed when the MFF consumed.
Metabolic state influences responses!
Results – Van den Bos et al., 2000
• “Palatability” as we define it: • Intake Ratio = amount consumed of A/(A+B)
is not a characteristic of the diet – it is a
behavioral response to the diet.
• Taste reactivity represents more subtle,
innate and immediate components of this
behavioral response.
Implications
Example
Behavioral Project
“Taste reactivity and behavioral responses in cats
to preferred and avoided taste stimuli”
Master’s thesis project:
Mikaela Hanson
Linköping University,
Sweden
July - December, 2014
Aims
•Identify threshold concentrations for preference or avoidance
for two taste stimuli relative to water.
•Identify behaviors that distinguish stimuli that are preferred vs.
those that are avoided.
•Does mixing the preferred and avoided flavors evoke both
behavioral patterns or is one type dominant?
Methods
Testing Conditions:
Singly housed testing, clear door for viewing.
Tested at the same times in the AM and PM.
Exposures to same stimulus separated by at least 1 day
5 minute trial.
Cats:
Healthy adult, normal weight cats.
Pre-adapted to transporting and testing conditions.
Trained to drink from the spout.
Validated with a highly palatable flavor vs. water
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Stimuli
•Simple taste solutions in water.
•5 Concentrations, tested from low to high.
•Stimuli thought to be positive, negative or neutral.
•Mixture of positive, negative at effective
concentrations
•Tested as paired comparisons:
• Tastant vs. Water
•pH, viscosity equal
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Video Data acquisition & analysis
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• Video coded by blinded, trained observers
• Coding scheme developed based on pilot studies
• Behaviors classified as “point” vs. “continuous”
• Point behaviors analyzed for: frequency, sequence,
location
• Continuous behaviors analyzed for: duration,
sequence, location
Healthy, adult, normal weight
Adapt to the testing arena
Handling and transport
Validated with a positive flavor
Tested for sidedness
14 cats completed the study
Lickometer, intake data
500 video records
Cats: Adaptation & Validation What was I supposed to do in here again?
Testing setup
•First lick, number of licks and volume consumed
•Lick ratio and Intake ratio calculated
•Video recording acquired for analysis
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Lickometer data for a positive taste stimulus:
Savory (amino acid) taste vs. water
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Lick
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Amino acid Water
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Behaviors – What are we looking for?
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Behavioral Analysis Chart
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Total Frequency of Point Behaviors: Series 3
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Sample Point Behavior Comparison: Series 3
0 50 100 150 200 250
Lip lick (microlick)
Nose lick
Whisker lick
Paws cage
Rubs with body
Rubs with face
Scratch
Shake body
Shake head
Flinch/Startle
Tongue protrusion
Flehmen
Miscellaneous
Hunch
Head Twist
Tongue Protrusion Gape
Air Lick/ Pre-Drink Lick
Mouth Smack
Paw Shake
Paw Curl
Negative Positive
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T
Frequency Ratio (FR) of Point Behaviors: Series 3
FR = frequency with stimulus A/total frequency
Analysis continues….
• ~250/500 video records have been coded
• Questions:
• Are there behaviors that correlate with lickometer and
intake data:
• Common across cats
• Specific to individual cats
• Do behaviors in response to the mixture:
• represent one type or a combination of response types seen with
the single stimuli?
• include responses not seen with single stimuli?
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Application to feeding behavior:
decisiveness
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Rapid preference screening: method development
Individual cats
Familiar setting
32 trials total (9 cats)
5 palatants vs control
Trial duration = 1 feeding bout
Recorded: first approach, first choice,
Analyze: EAT/sniff sequence, # switches
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Example of Trial
(EAT/sniff sequence: a b A)
CARP ppt 60390.Gaga.abA.wmv
Example of Coding
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Gaga
Sniffed B, Ate B, never went to A
Sniffed A, Ate A
Sniffed B, sniffed A, ate A => choice based on odor alone
“Switcher” alternated between A and B – no clear preference
Iggy
Later sniffed B, ate B Hendrix
Duran
3 min
Gaga clearly made a choice between A and B, and preferred A
Iggy ate more of B, but never tasted A.
Eat/Sniff Duration – test product
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Intake Ratio and Decisiveness:
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0 g 100 g
2 2 1 2 2
0 0 0 0 0
IR = 0.75
Switches = 9
Decisiveness = 0
0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1
Switches = 0
Decisiveness = 1.0
IR = 0.7575 g A 25 g B
Five meals
Cat B
Cat A
Average IR = 0.75: A > BAverage Decisiveness = 0.50: A = B
Additional observations:
Fewer switches = More Decisive
More Decisive = Clearer
Preference91% agreement between first
choice and first approach (sniff).
Results can reveal how the diet
performs across multiple meals
within a day.
Added dimension to interpretation of
IR data
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Going forward
• How does flavor impact decisiveness?
• First choice = most enticing, but does
the taste live up to the odor?• Results guide product design for
improved performance.
• What specific behaviors are owners
using to guide their purchasing?• Suggest/support new marketing
strategies.
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Thanks for listening!
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