Social housing is recommended for laboratory rats because they are highly social mammals but research constraints or medical issues often demand individual housing and, when
A challenge for social-affective neuroscience programs is to identify simple and yet valid animal models for studying the expression of basic social emotions and their
Handling of laboratory rats can increase physiological and emotional stress, leading to a fearful relationship with humans. We hypothesized that the affective quality of handling
The ability of positive affective states to counteract negative states engendered by routine medical procedures remains poorly studied. In laboratory rats, positive affect typically associated
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