EEG | Horse Racing Free Tips

Want To Read Your Horse’s Mind? Researchers Create A Headband That Can Help

Horsemen spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether their horses are stressed — a difficult task, given that they can't speak English. A team of French scientists have created a new tool that could help shed light on equine emotions.

The magazine Science recently reported on the process undertaken by Dr. Martine Hausberger to create a mobile headband that detects equine brainwaves, offering insight into their emotions.

Hauseberger was investigating whether stressed horses had a harder time learning how to open a sliding door, when he noticed that animals confined to cramped spaces had a more difficult time paying attention to lessons. He hypothesized that the confined animals might be depressed.

Hauseberger wanted to use an electroencephalogram (EEG) on the horse to better understand his state of mind. An EEG machine measures electrical impulses in the brain and have been used to study sleep patterns and epilepsy in humans for over 100 years. More recently, EEGs have been used to decipher brain waves related to anxiety, depression, and contentedness.

Hausberger and neurophysicist Dr. Hugo Cousillas modified a wearable human EEG headband to fit the equine head. It includes just four electrodes and has no wires, making it usable up to 60 feet away from the receiver. The duo engaged the help of Dr. Mathilde Stomp and used the new EEG on 18 horses. Half of the study group lived outside in a herd and half lived in stalls.

The groups had very different EEG readouts: the horses kept in stalls exhibited 2.5 times more of the waves that indicate distraction, depression, and anxiety than their turned-out counterparts. The turned-out horses had more of the brain waves that indicate calmness and attentiveness.

Though equine brain waves can't be interpreted in the same manner as human brainwaves, it's an interesting way of measuring equine mental health.

Chronic Pain Can Be Detected In Equine EEGs

Chronic pain is difficult to assess as it involves subjective emotional and cognitive facets. There has been increasing interest in using electroencephalograms (EEGs), which measures brain waves, on resting horses to help determine if the horse is experiencing chronic pain. EEGs have been used as a tool in human medicine to help decipher chronic pain.

Riding horses are prone to chronic back pain; horses that experience this pain show lower levels of engagement and shorter attention spans. Drs. Mathilde Stomp, Serenella d'Ingeo, Séverine Henry, Clémence Lesimple, Hugo Cousillas and Martine Hausberger hypothesized that horses with chronic back pain would have resting-state EEGs that differed from horses that were pain-free.

The researchers fitted 18 horses with a headset and a telemetric recorder. The horses stood in a covered arena while they underwent back evaluations that noted the back's shape and muscular tension, as well as took precise spinal measurements. Thirteen of the horses had surface electromyography (sEMG) exams to measure muscle activity; each horse was monitored for 60 minutes to see if they had any stereotypic behavior.

The scientists found that the horses had consistent EEG profiles over time. Horses that were assessed as having back pain had resting-state EEGs that had more fast waves and fewer slow waves. The study team also linked back tension to the frequency of stereotypic behaviors. They scientists concluded that resting-state EEGs are a promising tool to assess chronic back pain in horses.

Read the full study here.

Brain Waves And Equine Welfare

While not the most widely available diagnostic option, measuring the brain waves of horses shows promise as an objective tool for assessing stress and welfare in horses. Often equine welfare is assessed by how people feel when they find animals in particular situations, rather than on scientific findings, Drs. Nora de Camp, Mechthild Ladwig-Wiegard, Carola Geitner, Jürgen Bergeler and Christa Thöne-Reineke note.

The study team created a pilot study to see if an electroencephalogram (EEG) could be used to objectively measure animal welfare and associated physiological states. An EEG detects electrical activity in the brain. The researchers used three adult horses for the study. The horses were recorded for 30 minutes a day for six days. On each day, they were either resting or placed in stocks for a veterinary treatment, which is stressful to horses.

EEG readings were taken throughout and the videos were assessed on the science-based Horse Grimace Scale. The researchers reported that they were able to see differences in EEG activity between the rest and stress phases of the study, which corresponded with significant changes in the Horse Grimace Scale scores.

They conclude that EEGs may be used as a tool to objectively asses animal welfare and well-being. They note that a crossover into human medicine is also a possibility; EEGs could be used as a tool to help determine the comfort level of people who are unable to actively communicate.

Read the full study here.