面部表情常常用于评估人类疼痛等情绪，特别是在非言语中（例如，认知性受损和新生儿）。最近，Langford等人的工作。（2010）已经证明小鼠表现出响应一系列常规的伤害性试验表达。如果这些面部表情是直接对疼痛的反应，那么这可能提供一种评估动物疼痛的新方法。使用面部表情的疼痛评估可能会克服与当前使用行为的最佳实践相关的一些局限性。阿片类镇痛的给药本身并未诱导面部表情的变化，混淆对疼痛的评估。面部表情可能与疼痛的情绪而不是感觉组分更直接相关，并且是最关键的情绪组成部分。在评估面部表情时，我们可以利用我们的自然倾向来看待面部，这可以提高这种方法的有效性。使用面部表情的疼痛评估应耗时耗时耗时，允许为更多程序和物种确定有效指标。我们的目标是调查面部表情是否可以客观上可靠地用于衡量一系列实验室动物物种的过程后疼痛，或者与其他技术结合。 Initially we will assess whether facial expressions in mice change following procedures associated with both acute (e.g. post-surgical) and chronic (e.g. neoplasia) pain. Once we have successfully validated the use of facial expressions for assessing post-surgical pain in mice we will assess whether a similar approach can be used to assess post-surgical pain in other species, including rats, rabbits and macaques. It is important to note that we currently have no objective method of assessing post-operative pain in non-human primates. We will demonstrate that facial expressions can: (1) Assess post-procedural pain as well as responses to nociceptive testing in mice; (2) Overcome the limitations associated with behavioural pain assessment; (3) Rapidly and objectively score pain in a variety of species; (4) Potentially be a more sensitive measure of pain; (5) Determine the duration and severity of post-procedural pain by correlating them with behavioural indicators of pain in a range of species; (6) Potentially assess the affective component of pain in animals; (7) Evaluate the efficacy of methods to alleviate pain (e.g. analgesic administration), and to develop and apply more humane endpoints.
