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Pathogen and Toxin Disgust in Rodents

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The Handbook of Disgust Research

Abstract

From an evolutionary perspective disgust can be considered as an affective/emotional system that functions to detect signs of pathogens, toxins, and contaminants, as well as to stimulate behaviours that reduce the risk of their acquisition. Here, we briefly review the origins, expression, and regulation of disgust-like behaviour in rodents. We briefly discuss: (1) evidence for the evolutionarily conserved expression of affective states and emotions, and in particular disgust (or analogues of disgust), in rodents; (2) pathogen disgust and olfactory mediated recognition and avoidance of actual and potentially infected conspecifics; (3) toxin elicited disgust and anticipatory disgust (anticipatory nausea); (4) trade-offs with other fitness costs; (5) the neurobiological mechanisms associated with the expression and modulation of avoidance/aversive behaviours and disgust; and (6) sex differences in the expression and regulation of disgust. Unravelling the mechanisms underlying the expression and regulation of disgust and disgust-like responses is critical for understanding how both humans and non-humans respond to pathogen, toxin, and contaminant threat.

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Acknowledgements

The studies described here were supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants to E.C. and. M.K and K-P.O.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Martin Kavaliers & Klaus-Peter Ossenkopp

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Martin Kavaliers & Elena Choleris

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  1. Martin Kavaliers
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  2. Klaus-Peter Ossenkopp
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  3. Elena Choleris
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Correspondence to Martin Kavaliers .

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  1. School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Philip A. Powell

  2. Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Nathan S. Consedine

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Kavaliers, M., Ossenkopp, KP., Choleris, E. (2021). Pathogen and Toxin Disgust in Rodents. In: Powell, P.A., Consedine, N.S. (eds) The Handbook of Disgust Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84486-8_4

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