caa a22 4500 605542155 CHVBK 20210128100920.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10071-015-0843-7 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10071-015-0843-7 Oxytocin enhances the appropriate use of human social cues by the domestic dog ( Canis familiaris ) in an object choice task [Elektronische Daten] [J. Oliva, J.-L. Rault, B. Appleton, A. Lill] It has been postulated that the neuropeptide, oxytocin, is involved in human-dog bonding. This may explain why dogs, compared to wolves, are such good performers on object choice tasks, which test their ability to attend to, and use, human social cues in order to find hidden food treats. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration, which is known to increase social cognition in humans, on domestic dogs' ability to perform such a task. We hypothesised that dogs would perform better on the task after an intranasal treatment of oxytocin. Sixty-two (31 males and 31 females) pet dogs completed the experiment over two different testing sessions, 5-15days apart. Intranasal oxytocin or a saline control was administered 45min before each session. All dogs received both treatments in a pseudo-randomised, counterbalanced order. Data were collected as scores out of ten for each of the four blocks of trials in each session. Two blocks of trials were conducted using a momentary distal pointing cue and two using a gazing cue, given by the experimenter. Oxytocin enhanced performance using momentary distal pointing cues, and this enhanced level of performance was maintained over 5-15days time in the absence of oxytocin. Oxytocin also decreased aversion to gazing cues, in that performance was below chance levels after saline administration but at chance levels after oxytocin administration. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 Cognition nationallicence Cues nationallicence Dog nationallicence Oxytocin nationallicence Social nationallicence Oliva J. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia aut Rault J.-L Animal Welfare Science Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia aut Appleton B. Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia aut Lill A. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia aut Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/3(2015-05-01), 767-775 1435-9448 18:3<767 2015 18 10071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0843-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0843-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Oliva J. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rault J.-L Animal Welfare Science Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Appleton B. Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Lill A. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Cognition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 18/3(2015-05-01), 767-775 1435-9448 18:3<767 2015 18 10071