Abstract
Exploration and play are considered to be crucial behaviors during mammalian development. Even though the relationship between glucocorticoids and exploratory behavior, stress, and anxiety is well described in the literature, very little is known about their role in play behavior in non-rodents. Likewise, the functional role of the “social hormone” oxytocin in exploration, play, stress, and anxiety is still unknown. The present work addresses this literature gap by studying plasma hormone profiles for cortisol (CORT) and oxytocin (OT) of domestic dogs exposed to a novel arena containing two unfamiliar trainers who did not interact with the dogs. We provide evidence suggesting a functional relationship between hormonal measures of cortisol and oxytocin and adaptive behavior (play-soliciting and exploration) in freely behaving domestic dogs. We have taken into account several possible factors in our analyses and interpretations, from the nature and quality of the measurements to demographic factors to statistical robustness. Our results indicate that reduced CORT levels are associated with increments of both play-soliciting behavior frequency and exploratory behavior duration. Furthermore, taken together, our data and our simulations suggest a relationship between OT and the enactment of play-soliciting behaviors by freely behaving domestic dogs that must be further investigated. Future studies should consider naturalistic structured and semi-structured experimental approaches linking behavior with (neuro) physiological measures, taking into account demographic factors such as age and relevant interphase factors such as the sex of the dog; and socio-historic factors such as the playfulness of the dog, history of interaction with young humans, among others, to take full account of interaction between humans and animals in comparative studies (Parada and Rossi, 2018).
Highlights
Exploration and play are considered linked behavioral strategies for dealing with novelty, during early mammalian development (Fiske and Maddi, 1961; Power, 2000; Burghardt, 2005)
The present study aims to explore the associations among exploratory and play-soliciting behaviors and plasma hormone measurements of cortisol and oxytocin in the domestic dog
Physiological predictors were entered in the first step of hierarchical multiple regression (Table 3, model 0: OT, CORT), explaining 59% of exploratory behavior variance [R2 = 0.586; R2adj = 0.482, F(2,8) = 5.653, p = 0.029] and 80% of play-soliciting behavior variance [R2 = 0.801; R2adj = 0.752, F(2,8) = 16.126, p = 0.002]
Summary
Exploration and play are considered linked behavioral strategies for dealing with novelty, during early mammalian development (Fiske and Maddi, 1961; Power, 2000; Burghardt, 2005) Their relevance to learning, predation strategies, and even tool use in species that use tools are long lasting (Rumbaugh et al, 1972; Hall and Bradshaw, 1998; Kramer and Burghardt, 1998). Hormonal Correlates of Exploration and Play face novelty during their life, and tending to occur when no other behavioral tendencies are active (Immelmann and Beer, 1989) They might be functionally similar, since they provide opportunities for adaptively shaping individuals’ knowledge and behaviors to the world. Exploration involves tradeoffs between benefits and risks in the course of encountering new situations and new potential play partners
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