The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study
Dogs have been shown to excel in reading human social cues, including facial cues. In the present study we used eye-tracking technology to further study dogs’ face processing abilities. It was found that dogs discriminated between human facial regions in their spontaneous viewing pattern and looked...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00210/full |
| _version_ | 1819141554487427072 |
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| author | Anna Kis Anna Hernádi Bernadett Miklósi Orsolya Kanizsár Orsolya Kanizsár József Topál |
| author_facet | Anna Kis Anna Hernádi Bernadett Miklósi Orsolya Kanizsár Orsolya Kanizsár József Topál |
| author_sort | Anna Kis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Dogs have been shown to excel in reading human social cues, including facial cues. In the present study we used eye-tracking technology to further study dogs’ face processing abilities. It was found that dogs discriminated between human facial regions in their spontaneous viewing pattern and looked most to the eye region independently of facial expression. Furthermore dogs played most attention to the first two images presented, afterwards their attention dramatically decreases; a finding that has methodological implications. Increasing evidence indicates that the oxytocin system is involved in dogs’ human-directed social competence, thus as a next step we investigated the effects of oxytocin on processing of human facial emotions. It was found that oxytocin decreases dogs’ looking to the human faces expressing angry emotional expression. More interestingly, however, after oxytocin pre-treatment dogs’ preferential gaze toward the eye region when processing happy human facial expressions disappears. These results provide the first evidence that oxytocin is involved in the regulation of human face processing in dogs. The present study is one of the few empirical investigations that explore eye gaze patterns in naïve and untrained pet dogs using a non-invasive eye-tracking technique and thus offers unique but largely untapped method for studying social cognition in dogs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:56:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a586cd8327ce4ba097962ce887f09a5d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5153 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T11:56:18Z |
| publishDate | 2017-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-a586cd8327ce4ba097962ce887f09a5d2022-12-21T18:26:45ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience1662-51532017-10-011110.3389/fnbeh.2017.00210292174The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking StudyAnna Kis0Anna Hernádi1Bernadett Miklósi2Orsolya Kanizsár3Orsolya Kanizsár4József Topál5Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, HungaryInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Ethology, Eötvös University, Budapest, HungaryInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, HungaryDepartment of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padova, Padova, ItalyInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, HungaryDogs have been shown to excel in reading human social cues, including facial cues. In the present study we used eye-tracking technology to further study dogs’ face processing abilities. It was found that dogs discriminated between human facial regions in their spontaneous viewing pattern and looked most to the eye region independently of facial expression. Furthermore dogs played most attention to the first two images presented, afterwards their attention dramatically decreases; a finding that has methodological implications. Increasing evidence indicates that the oxytocin system is involved in dogs’ human-directed social competence, thus as a next step we investigated the effects of oxytocin on processing of human facial emotions. It was found that oxytocin decreases dogs’ looking to the human faces expressing angry emotional expression. More interestingly, however, after oxytocin pre-treatment dogs’ preferential gaze toward the eye region when processing happy human facial expressions disappears. These results provide the first evidence that oxytocin is involved in the regulation of human face processing in dogs. The present study is one of the few empirical investigations that explore eye gaze patterns in naïve and untrained pet dogs using a non-invasive eye-tracking technique and thus offers unique but largely untapped method for studying social cognition in dogs.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00210/fulldogeye-trackingoxytocinemotionface processing |
| spellingShingle | Anna Kis Anna Hernádi Bernadett Miklósi Orsolya Kanizsár Orsolya Kanizsár József Topál The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience dog eye-tracking oxytocin emotion face processing |
| title | The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full | The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_fullStr | The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_short | The Way Dogs (Canis familiaris) Look at Human Emotional Faces Is Modulated by Oxytocin. An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_sort | way dogs canis familiaris look at human emotional faces is modulated by oxytocin an eye tracking study |
| topic | dog eye-tracking oxytocin emotion face processing |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00210/full |
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