A Neurologic Perspective of Equine Stereotypy

Discussion on the cause of equine stereotypy dates back nearly 400 years and has remained as speculation until recently. Research now provides empirical support to many previously untested hypotheses identifying restricted feeding, reduced social contact, and diminished locomotor activity as being critical to increased risk of stereotypy development. This review critically assesses this and other current research into equine and nonequine stereotypy and concludes with a neurologic model of equine stereotypy development that highlights genotype-dependent upregulation of transmission in midbrain dopaminergic pathways as being extremely important to the underlying causes. Dismantling this model may provide additional strategies of stereotypy impediment and reduction.