Effect of Intranasal Oxytocin Administration on Human-Directed Social Behaviors in Shelter and Pet Dogs.

Gabriela Barrera,Victoria Dzik,Mariana Bentosela,Camila Cavalli

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02227

Abstract

A wide variety of evidence has demonstrated that oxytocin is involved in socio-cognitive skills in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). The purpose was to evaluate the effect of oxytocin administration on socio-cognitive abilities in two populations of dogs with different levels of daily human contact: shelter and pet dogs. Additionally, the effect of different doses of oxytocin (i.e., 16 and 24 IU) was assessed. To this end, dogs were tested on two tasks: a sociability test to assess their social responses and a communicative task focused on the learning of gazing responses. Results showed that pet dogs performed better than shelter dogs on the sociability and the gazing tests showing the relevance of dogs’ previous experience and learning when interacting with people. The administration of 16 IU as well as 24 IU of oxytocin improved the performance on the communicative learning task, producing an increment in gaze duration during extinction. This difference was observed in both pet and shelter dogs. Therefore, oxytocin seems to participate in the persistence of this communicative response. However, the treatment did not modify the behaviors during the sociability test. Furthermore, oxytocin appears to be beneficial to increase the communicative abilities of shelter dogs.

Highlights

An increased interest in the comparison of human-dog interactions on physiological levels has been seen in recent years
The first purpose of our study is to evaluate the effect of the intranasal administration of OT (16 IU) on dogs’ social behaviors during the interaction with a stranger in a sociability test
The other comparisons were non-significant, p > 0.05. These results indicate that pet dogs (PD) performed better than shelter dogs (SHD) on both the sociability and the communicative learning task

Summary

Introduction

An increased interest in the comparison of human-dog interactions on physiological levels has been seen in recent years. Investigation of the effects of oxytocin (OT) on companion dogs’ socio-cognitive skills and the related increase of affiliative behaviors has become more relevant. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide and hormone synthesized in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei in the hypothalamus and it is related to a wide range of affiliative and socio-cognitive behaviors in a variety of species (Lee et al, 2009). Oxytocin and Dog’s Social Behavior toward the eye region among macaques (Dal Monte et al, 2014) and humans (Guastella et al, 2008). In relation to epigenetic mechanisms, similar social behaviors were associated with DNA methylations in the promoter region of OXTR in dogs (Cimarelli et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion