Oxytocin enhances the appropriate use of human social cues by the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) in an object choice task

Abstract

It has been postulated that the neuropeptide, oxytocin, is involved in human-dog bonding. This may explain why dogs, compared to wolves, are such good performers on object choice tasks, which test their ability to attend to, and use, human social cues in order to find hidden food treats. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration, which is known to increase social cognition in humans, on domestic dogs' ability to perform such a task. We hypothesised that dogs would perform better on the task after an intranasal treatment of oxytocin. Sixty-two (31 males and 31 females) pet dogs completed the experiment over two different testing sessions, 5-15 days apart. Intranasal oxytocin or a saline control was administered 45 min before each session. All dogs received both treatments in a pseudo-randomised, counterbalanced order. Data were collected as scores out of ten for each of the four blocks of trials in each session. Two blocks of trials were conducted using a momentary distal pointing cue and two using a gazing cue, given by the experimenter. Oxytocin enhanced performance using momentary distal pointing cues, and this enhanced level of performance was maintained over 5-15 days time in the absence of oxytocin. Oxytocin also decreased aversion to gazing cues, in that performance was below chance levels after saline administration but at chance levels after oxytocin administration.

Social Attention in the Two Species of Pan: Bonobos Make More Eye Contact than Chimpanzees

“…Relatedly, the oxytocin-receptor gene is reported to be different between bonobos and chimpanzees [60]. Also see recent studies that showed the human-dog bonding and communication mediated by eye-contact, human social cues, and oxytocin [61, 62]. In humans, individuals with a higher level of prenatal androgens show a decreased level of eye contact [63].…”

Schizophrenia and Human Self-Domestication: An Evolutionary Linguistics Approach

“…Specifically, it has been recently argued that this hormone modulates the multimodality that characterizes our higher-order linguistic abilities [Theofanopoulou, 2016]. Oxytocin promotes social play in domestic dogs and the appropriate use of human social cues [Oliva et al, 2015;Romero et al, 2015]. A positive correlation between SZ progression and oxytocin levels in the central nervous system has been observed [Beckmann et al, 1985], and it is plausibly explained by a decreased sensitivity to the hormone [Glovinsky et al, 1994;Sasayama et al, 2012;Strauss et al, 2015].…”

Intranasally administered oxytocin affects how dogs (Canis familiaris) react to the threatening approach of their owner and an unfamiliar experimenter

“…Recent research has found that polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) 66 gene are related to human directed social behaviours in dogs (Kis et al, 2014a) and that 67 intranasally administered oxytocin promotes positive social behaviours toward both humans 68 and conspecifics (Romero et al, 2014). It has also been reported that intranasally 69 administered oxytocin induces positive expectations about ambivalent stimuli in dogs, 70 especially in a social context (Kis et al, 2015), enhances dogsʼ use of human pointing 71 gestures (Oliva et al, 2015), and increases gazing behaviour of female dogs to their owners in 72 a neutral situation (Nagasawa et al, 2015). However, no study has yet investigated the effect 73 of intranasal oxytocin on dogs' behaviour in negatively valenced situations.…”