The effect of age, sex and gonadectomy on dogs’ use of spatial navigation strategies

Abstract

Spatial navigation entails cognitive processes that allow mobile animals to know where they are and to find a way back to their shelters, or to access resources, by using multiple cue sources, such as path integration, magnetic cues and different landmarks (Brodbeck and Tanninen, 2012). The spatial cognitive processing requires memorizing specific landmarks, positions and locations, allowing, in its most sophisticated form, to elaborate a cognitive map in order to orientate oneself and navigate in the surrounding environment. In the last decades, a body of researches underlined sex differences in spatial navigation tasks in mammals with males showing generally better performances, possibly due to a different involvement in the reproductive function (

Behavioral and Perceptual Differences between Sexes in Dogs: An Overview

“…Studies on spatial navigation underline that male dogs outperform females in reverting the navigation strategy in a “Do as I do” paradigm [ 166 ]; however, no sex differences were identified in reversal-learning in the T- and plus-maze paradigms [ 167 , 168 ]. In a T-maze paradigm, the better performance of the intact females in the learning task may be linked to the superior spatial ability of females in restricted areas reported for other mammals [ 158 , 215 ].…”

“…In a T-maze paradigm, the better performance of the intact females in the learning task may be linked to the superior spatial ability of females in restricted areas reported for other mammals [ 158 , 215 ]. An interesting outcome in a plus-maze study is the different effect of age between sexes, with a positive correlation in females and the opposite trend in males [ 168 ]. Consistent with the reports in most mammals, females tend to disperse from their natal group less frequently than males [ 21 ].…”

“…Thus, it is possible that they are predisposed to use flexibly different spatial information in the early years of life to cope with unpredictable environments, in line with the major skill in the navigation strategies identified in males in other mammals [ 155 , 156 ] and the theoretical predictions [ 157 , 158 , 159 ]. Sexual hormones seem to affect the spatial cognition since ovariectomized females are more likely to prefer an egocentric strategy than an allocentric one [ 168 ]. An effect also underlined in rats in which a bias toward the use of egocentric rather than allocentric strategies was observed [ 220 , 221 , 222 ].…”

“…The results showed that intact females had a better performance in the learning task than ovariectomized females and intact males. In a third study by the same group [ 168 ] dogs’ spatial skills were tested in an indoor plus-maze. After a learning phase to acquaint the dogs with the location of food in the maze, their preference toward egocentric or allocentric information was assessed.…”

“…However, ovariectomized females were significantly more likely to prefer an egocentric strategy. An interesting result in the plus-maze study was that the probability of successfully resorting to the non-preferred strategy increases with age in females, whereas it decreases in males [ 168 ].…”