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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8592048 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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