Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats

BACKGROUND: Extensive research has evaluated the involvement of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in human social behaviors, including parent-infant relationships. Studies have investigated OT’s connection to human attachment to nonhuman animals, with the majority of the literature focusing on domestic...

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Autores principales: Johnson, Elizabeth A., Portillo, Arianna, Bennett, Nikki E., Gray, Peter B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8592048/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34824911
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12393
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author Johnson, Elizabeth A.
Portillo, Arianna
Bennett, Nikki E.
Gray, Peter B.
author_facet Johnson, Elizabeth A.
Portillo, Arianna
Bennett, Nikki E.
Gray, Peter B.
author_sort Johnson, Elizabeth A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Extensive research has evaluated the involvement of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in human social behaviors, including parent-infant relationships. Studies have investigated OT’s connection to human attachment to nonhuman animals, with the majority of the literature focusing on domestic dogs (Canis lupis familiaris). Utilizing what is known about OT and its role in maternal-infant and human-dog bonding, we apply these frameworks to the study of human-domestic cat (Felis catus) interactions. METHODS: We investigated changes in salivary OT levels in 30 U.S. women of reproductive age before and after two conditions: reading a book (control) and interacting with their pet cat. Participant and cat behavioral patterns during the cat interaction condition were also quantified to determine if differences in women’s OT concentrations were associated with specific human and cat behaviors. RESULTS: Our results revealed no changes in women’s OT levels during the cat interaction, relative to the control condition, and pre-cat interaction OT levels. However, differences in women’s OT concentrations were correlated with some human-cat interactions (e.g., positively with petting cat and cat approach initiation, negatively with cat agonistic behavior) but not all observed behaviors (e.g., use of gentle or baby voice) coded during human-cat interactions. DISCUSSION: This study is the first to explore women’s OT in response to interactions with their pet cat and has identified distinct human and cat behaviors that influence OT release in humans.
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spelling pubmed-85920482021-11-24 Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats Johnson, Elizabeth A. Portillo, Arianna Bennett, Nikki E. Gray, Peter B. PeerJ Animal Behavior BACKGROUND: Extensive research has evaluated the involvement of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in human social behaviors, including parent-infant relationships. Studies have investigated OT’s connection to human attachment to nonhuman animals, with the majority of the literature focusing on domestic dogs (Canis lupis familiaris). Utilizing what is known about OT and its role in maternal-infant and human-dog bonding, we apply these frameworks to the study of human-domestic cat (Felis catus) interactions. METHODS: We investigated changes in salivary OT levels in 30 U.S. women of reproductive age before and after two conditions: reading a book (control) and interacting with their pet cat. Participant and cat behavioral patterns during the cat interaction condition were also quantified to determine if differences in women’s OT concentrations were associated with specific human and cat behaviors. RESULTS: Our results revealed no changes in women’s OT levels during the cat interaction, relative to the control condition, and pre-cat interaction OT levels. However, differences in women’s OT concentrations were correlated with some human-cat interactions (e.g., positively with petting cat and cat approach initiation, negatively with cat agonistic behavior) but not all observed behaviors (e.g., use of gentle or baby voice) coded during human-cat interactions. DISCUSSION: This study is the first to explore women’s OT in response to interactions with their pet cat and has identified distinct human and cat behaviors that influence OT release in humans. PeerJ Inc. 2021-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8592048/ /pubmed/34824911 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12393 Text en ©2021 Johnson et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Johnson, Elizabeth A.
Portillo, Arianna
Bennett, Nikki E.
Gray, Peter B.
Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title_full Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title_fullStr Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title_full_unstemmed Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title_short Exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
title_sort exploring women’s oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8592048/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34824911
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12393
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