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Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery

For a long time, oxytocin has been thought to have a generally positive effect on social cognition and prosocial behavior; however, recent results suggested that oxytocin has beneficial effects only under certain conditions. The aim of the present study was to explore potential associations between...

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Autores principales: Turcsán, Borbála, Román, Viktor, Lévay, György, Lendvai, Balázs, Kedves, Rita, Petró, Eszter, Topál, József
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8907566/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35280140
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.785805
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author Turcsán, Borbála
Román, Viktor
Lévay, György
Lendvai, Balázs
Kedves, Rita
Petró, Eszter
Topál, József
author_facet Turcsán, Borbála
Román, Viktor
Lévay, György
Lendvai, Balázs
Kedves, Rita
Petró, Eszter
Topál, József
author_sort Turcsán, Borbála
collection PubMed
description For a long time, oxytocin has been thought to have a generally positive effect on social cognition and prosocial behavior; however, recent results suggested that oxytocin has beneficial effects only under certain conditions. The aim of the present study was to explore potential associations between social competence and the effect of intranasal oxytocin on the social behavior of laboratory beagle dogs. We expected oxytocin treatment to have a more pronounced positive effect on dogs with lower baseline performance in a social test battery. Thirty-six adult dogs of both sexes received 32 IU intranasal oxytocin and physiological saline (placebo) treatment in a double-blind, cross-over design, with 17–20 days between the two sessions. Forty minutes after the treatment, dogs participated in a social test battery consisting of eight situations. The situations were carried out within one session and took 20–30 min to complete. Principal component analysis on the coded behaviors identified four components (Willingness to interact, Preference for social contact, Non-aversive response to nonsocial threat, and Non-aversive response to social threat). The subjects' behavior during the placebo condition was used to assess their baseline performance. We found that oxytocin treatment had a differential effect on the behavior depending on the baseline performance of the individuals in all components, but only two treatment × baseline performance interactions remained significant in a less sensitive analysis. In accordance with our hypothesis, oxytocin administration increased dogs' contact seeking and affiliative behaviors toward humans but only for those with low baseline performance. Dogs with low baseline performance also showed significantly more positive (friendly) reactions to social threat after oxytocin administration than after placebo, while for dogs with high baseline performance, oxytocin administration led to a more negative (fearful) reaction. These results indicate that similar to those on humans, the effects of oxytocin on dogs' social behavior are not universally positive but are constrained by individual characteristics and the context. Nevertheless, oxytocin administration has the potential to improve the social behavior of laboratory beagle dogs that are socially less proficient when interacting with humans, which could have both applied and animal welfare implications.
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spelling pubmed-89075662022-03-11 Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery Turcsán, Borbála Román, Viktor Lévay, György Lendvai, Balázs Kedves, Rita Petró, Eszter Topál, József Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science For a long time, oxytocin has been thought to have a generally positive effect on social cognition and prosocial behavior; however, recent results suggested that oxytocin has beneficial effects only under certain conditions. The aim of the present study was to explore potential associations between social competence and the effect of intranasal oxytocin on the social behavior of laboratory beagle dogs. We expected oxytocin treatment to have a more pronounced positive effect on dogs with lower baseline performance in a social test battery. Thirty-six adult dogs of both sexes received 32 IU intranasal oxytocin and physiological saline (placebo) treatment in a double-blind, cross-over design, with 17–20 days between the two sessions. Forty minutes after the treatment, dogs participated in a social test battery consisting of eight situations. The situations were carried out within one session and took 20–30 min to complete. Principal component analysis on the coded behaviors identified four components (Willingness to interact, Preference for social contact, Non-aversive response to nonsocial threat, and Non-aversive response to social threat). The subjects' behavior during the placebo condition was used to assess their baseline performance. We found that oxytocin treatment had a differential effect on the behavior depending on the baseline performance of the individuals in all components, but only two treatment × baseline performance interactions remained significant in a less sensitive analysis. In accordance with our hypothesis, oxytocin administration increased dogs' contact seeking and affiliative behaviors toward humans but only for those with low baseline performance. Dogs with low baseline performance also showed significantly more positive (friendly) reactions to social threat after oxytocin administration than after placebo, while for dogs with high baseline performance, oxytocin administration led to a more negative (fearful) reaction. These results indicate that similar to those on humans, the effects of oxytocin on dogs' social behavior are not universally positive but are constrained by individual characteristics and the context. Nevertheless, oxytocin administration has the potential to improve the social behavior of laboratory beagle dogs that are socially less proficient when interacting with humans, which could have both applied and animal welfare implications. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8907566/ /pubmed/35280140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.785805 Text en Copyright © 2022 Turcsán, Román, Lévay, Lendvai, Kedves, Petró and Topál. https://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) and the copyright owner(s) 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 Veterinary Science
Turcsán, Borbála
Román, Viktor
Lévay, György
Lendvai, Balázs
Kedves, Rita
Petró, Eszter
Topál, József
Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title_full Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title_fullStr Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title_full_unstemmed Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title_short Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Social Behavior in Laboratory Beagle Dogs (Canis familiaris) Using a Custom-Made Social Test Battery
title_sort intranasal oxytocin improves social behavior in laboratory beagle dogs (canis familiaris) using a custom-made social test battery
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8907566/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35280140
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.785805
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