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ADORABLE TINY CROCHETS USED TO STUDY CHRONIC PAIN IN CATS

These adorable cats wearing crochet hats may appear silly at first glance, but their purpose is scientific. By measuring the brain activity of cats using electroencephalography (EEG), researchers at the University of Montreal hoped to learn more about how they deal with chronic pain. The difficulty, though, arose in maintaining the electrodes on the 11 participating cats' heads. To keep the electrodes safe and out of the reach of curious paws, they tucked them into tiny crochet hats.

Aude Castel, an assistant professor at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, says, "We came up with the idea for the little knitted hat that would keep the electrodes in place because cats tended to shake their heads and play or chew our EEG electrodes." "The cats tolerated the hat very well and allowed us to record their brain activity while awake and being exposed to various sensory stimuli with the help of some treats and positive reinforcement."

Radiographic osteoarthritis causes chronic pain in over 25% of adult cats; this percentage rises with age. There are currently few effective treatment options for cats, and they frequently have negative side effects. This prompted scientists to investigate non-invasive techniques for treating chronic pain in cats, many of which have already been shown to be effective in treating human pain.

The team exposed the cats to a range of sensory stimuli, such as citrus scents and exposure to various light wavelengths, that they thought might help reduce pain and stress. "We wanted to see if, just like in people, we could modulate their brain activity and, by the same token, their pain perception with sensory stimulation," explains Castel, explaining why they were exposed to various stimulations. 

The electrodes remained firmly in place during the experiment because of the crochet hats, which ultimately made it possible for the researchers to gather the data. The remaining recordings offered important information about how the cats' brain waves reacted to the sensory stimuli, even though some had to be removed because of signal interference from the cats' movements.

The team hopes that this will not be the first study to successfully use surface electrodes to perform EEGs on awake cats. Their research is essential to our understanding of chronic pain in animals and may eventually result in new therapeutic interventions, perhaps even bringing this strategy to other species.


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