Cargando…

Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants

It has been suggested that dogs' remarkable capacity to use human communicative signals lies in their comparable social cognitive skills; however, this view has been questioned recently. The present study investigated associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and social b...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Oláh, Katalin, Topál, József, Kovács, Krisztina, Kis, Anna, Koller, Dóra, Young Park, Soon, Virányi, Zsófia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5732940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29312041
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02156
_version_ 1783286801311465472
author Oláh, Katalin
Topál, József
Kovács, Krisztina
Kis, Anna
Koller, Dóra
Young Park, Soon
Virányi, Zsófia
author_facet Oláh, Katalin
Topál, József
Kovács, Krisztina
Kis, Anna
Koller, Dóra
Young Park, Soon
Virányi, Zsófia
author_sort Oláh, Katalin
collection PubMed
description It has been suggested that dogs' remarkable capacity to use human communicative signals lies in their comparable social cognitive skills; however, this view has been questioned recently. The present study investigated associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and social behavior in human infants and dogs with the aim to unravel potentially differential mechanisms behind their responsiveness to human gaze. Sixteen-month-old human infants (N = 99) and adult Border Collie dogs (N = 71) participated in two tasks designed to test (1) their use of gaze-direction as a cue to locate a hidden object, and (2) their reactions to an aversive social interaction (using the still face task for children and a threatening approach task for dogs). Moreover, we obtained DNA samples to analyze associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the OXTR (dogs: −213AG, −94TC, −74CG, rs8679682, children: rs53576, rs1042778, rs2254298) and behavior. We found that OXTR genotype was significantly associated with reactions to an aversive social interaction both in dogs and children, confirming the anxiolytic effect of oxytocin in both species. In dogs, the genotypes linked to less fearful behavior were associated also with a higher willingness to follow gaze whereas in children, OXTR gene polymorphisms did not affect gaze following success. This pattern of gene-behavior associations suggests that for dogs the two situations are more alike (potentially fear-inducing or competitive) than for human children. This raises the possibility that, in contrast to former studies proposing human-like cooperativeness in dogs, dogs may perceive human gaze in an object-choice task in a more antagonistic manner than children.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5732940
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-57329402018-01-08 Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants Oláh, Katalin Topál, József Kovács, Krisztina Kis, Anna Koller, Dóra Young Park, Soon Virányi, Zsófia Front Psychol Psychology It has been suggested that dogs' remarkable capacity to use human communicative signals lies in their comparable social cognitive skills; however, this view has been questioned recently. The present study investigated associations between oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and social behavior in human infants and dogs with the aim to unravel potentially differential mechanisms behind their responsiveness to human gaze. Sixteen-month-old human infants (N = 99) and adult Border Collie dogs (N = 71) participated in two tasks designed to test (1) their use of gaze-direction as a cue to locate a hidden object, and (2) their reactions to an aversive social interaction (using the still face task for children and a threatening approach task for dogs). Moreover, we obtained DNA samples to analyze associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the OXTR (dogs: −213AG, −94TC, −74CG, rs8679682, children: rs53576, rs1042778, rs2254298) and behavior. We found that OXTR genotype was significantly associated with reactions to an aversive social interaction both in dogs and children, confirming the anxiolytic effect of oxytocin in both species. In dogs, the genotypes linked to less fearful behavior were associated also with a higher willingness to follow gaze whereas in children, OXTR gene polymorphisms did not affect gaze following success. This pattern of gene-behavior associations suggests that for dogs the two situations are more alike (potentially fear-inducing or competitive) than for human children. This raises the possibility that, in contrast to former studies proposing human-like cooperativeness in dogs, dogs may perceive human gaze in an object-choice task in a more antagonistic manner than children. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-12-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5732940/ /pubmed/29312041 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02156 Text en Copyright © 2017 Oláh, Topál, Kovács, Kis, Koller, Young Park and Virányi. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Oláh, Katalin
Topál, József
Kovács, Krisztina
Kis, Anna
Koller, Dóra
Young Park, Soon
Virányi, Zsófia
Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title_full Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title_fullStr Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title_full_unstemmed Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title_short Gaze-Following and Reaction to an Aversive Social Interaction Have Corresponding Associations with Variation in the OXTR Gene in Dogs but Not in Human Infants
title_sort gaze-following and reaction to an aversive social interaction have corresponding associations with variation in the oxtr gene in dogs but not in human infants
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5732940/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29312041
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02156
work_keys_str_mv AT olahkatalin gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT topaljozsef gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT kovacskrisztina gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT kisanna gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT kollerdora gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT youngparksoon gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants
AT viranyizsofia gazefollowingandreactiontoanaversivesocialinteractionhavecorrespondingassociationswithvariationintheoxtrgeneindogsbutnotinhumaninfants