Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Dogs

While we know that dogs evolved from wolves through a process of domestication, it remains unclear how this process may have affected dog cognitive development. Here we tested dog (N=44) and wolf (N=37) puppies, 5-18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. Dog puppies were more a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Salomons, Hannah, Smith, Kyle, Callahan-Beckel, Megan, Callahan, Margaret, Levy, Kerinne, Kennedy, Brenda S., Bray, Emily, Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali E., Horschler, Daniel J., Gruen, Margaret, Tan, Jingzhi, White, Philip, MacLean, Evan, Hare, Brian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2021
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8610089/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34256018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.051
Descripción
Sumario:While we know that dogs evolved from wolves through a process of domestication, it remains unclear how this process may have affected dog cognitive development. Here we tested dog (N=44) and wolf (N=37) puppies, 5-18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. Dog puppies were more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully and made more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species were similarly attracted to objects and performed similarly on nonsocial measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results demonstrate the role of domestication in enhancing the cooperative communication skills of dogs through selection on attraction to humans, which altered developmental pathways.

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