Mice Show Emotion on Their Faces
Researchers in Germany have concluded that mice show emotion on their faces. This team ran an experiment that correlates a mouse’s facial expressions with their brain activity. Before you get too excited about the possibility of communicating with your house mice, understand that while mice do show emotion with several different facial expressions in the way that humans might, you won’t see a mouse smiling, frowning, or even showing anger in a way that you will readily recognize.How Do Mice Show Emotion?
Mice, like humans, show changes in their eyes, mouth, and facial muscles in response to stimuli. They may twitch their whiskers, wiggle their ears, close or narrow their eyes, or move their noses when their feelings change. Like people, mice are adept at inspecting the world around them. Unlike humans, mice rely more on their senses to look out for danger, food, and safe places to rest.How Many Emotions Do Mice Show?
Though mice may feel a wide range of emotions, they show specific ones on their faces in predictable ways. In the experiment above, the researchers found evidence of the following emotions on their subjects’ faces:- Happiness
- Disgust
- Nausea
- Fear
- Pain