STUDY: CATS IN LITTLE CROCHETED HATS SHED LIGHT ON FELINE CHRONIC PAIN

Our feline friends aren’t exactly known for following human commands, making it challenging to study their behaviors in controlled lab environments. This requires a bit of creativity to yield usable results—like crocheting adorable little hats for cats participating in electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments.

Researchers at the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, took this innovative approach to better understand chronic pain in cats, achieving a significant milestone. Their recent paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods marks the first time scientists have recorded electrical activity in the brains of conscious cats.

The authors note that about one-quarter of adult cats suffer from osteoarthritis and chronic pain that intensifies with age. Current treatment options are limited, primarily consisting of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which can carry serious side effects. Recently, an injectable monoclonal antibody designed for cats was developed to neutralize excessive nerve growth factor. However, alternative treatments like supplements and regenerative medicine still require testing, and the impact of certain scents or lighting on pain perception in cats remains unexplored.

“When you spend more time putting electrodes back on than actually recording the EEGs, you get creative,” said co-author Aliénor Delsart from the University of Montreal in an interview with New Scientist. To address this challenge, he and his colleagues enlisted a graduate student with crocheting skills to create little hats that not only secured the electrodes but also prevented the cats from chewing on the wires.

With that issue resolved, the real experiments could commence, aimed at recording the brain activity of cats in response to various sensory stimuli. The feline participants were kept in a controlled environment with regulated lighting, temperature, and humidity, along with perches, beds, scratching posts, and toys for enrichment.

Electrodes were attached without the need to shave the cats’ fur, thanks to a conductive paste that enhanced electrode-skin contact. The researchers first recorded the cats’ baseline brain activity before introducing sensory stimuli: a grapefruit scent for olfactory stimulation and red, blue, and green lights in a darkened room for visual stimulation.

There were some motion artifacts in the data, leading to the exclusion of two cats from the analysis. The authors acknowledged the small sample size and the descriptive nature of their study, which they considered suitable for assessing the feasibility of their approach. The study successfully achieved its main objectives: determining whether EEG could be effectively conducted with conscious cats and whether the analytical methods used were efficient in characterizing the cats’ responses to specific sensory stimuli. “This opens new avenues for investigating chronic pain mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic strategies,” the authors concluded.