Affenzeller Nadja, Palme Rupert, Zulch Helen
Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Group, School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, United Kingdom; Department of Companion Animals, Clinical Unit of Internal Medicine Small Animals, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Unit of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Experimental Endocrinology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Physiol Behav. 2017 Jan 1;168:62-73. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.10.014. Epub 2016 Oct 21.
Situations that are emotional and arousing have an effect on cognitive performance. It is thought that beta adrenergic activation and the release of stress hormones enhance memory consolidation and lead to an increase in memorability of emotional events. This beneficial effect has been shown in humans, non-human primates and rodents. Techniques which could enhance memory for learning specific tasks would be highly valuable, especially in dogs, which are extensively trained to aid humans. A pseudo-randomized, counterbalanced, between subject study designs was utilised and 16 Labrador Retrievers ranging from 1 to 9years of age were trained in a 2-choice discrimination paradigm. After task acquisition, either a playful activity intervention (N=8) or a resting period (N=8) took place, lasting for 30min. A range of factors including age, sex, training experience and trials to criterion on each day was subjected to a multiple factor/covariate General Linear Model analysis. The results show that playful activity post-learning improved training performance evidenced by fewer trials needed to re-learn the task 24h after initial acquisition (playful activity group: mean number of trials 26, SD 6; resting group: mean number of trials 43, SD 19, effect size 1.2). Average heart rate, as a measure of arousal, during the intervention was significantly higher in the playful activity group (143beats/min, SD 16) versus the resting group (86beats/min, SD 19, P<0.001). Salivary cortisol did not significantly differ between groups during training, however a significant decrease (T: -4.1 P<0.01) was seen after the playful activity. To our knowledge this is the first evidence that posttraining activity may influence training performance in dogs.
情绪化和令人兴奋的情境会对认知表现产生影响。据认为，β-肾上腺素能激活和应激激素的释放会增强记忆巩固，并导致情绪事件的记忆性增加。这种有益效果已在人类、非人类灵长类动物和啮齿动物中得到证实。能够增强学习特定任务记忆的技术将非常有价值，尤其是在经过广泛训练以帮助人类的狗身上。本研究采用了伪随机、平衡、受试者间研究设计，对16只年龄在1至9岁之间的拉布拉多猎犬进行了双选辨别范式训练。在任务习得后，进行了为期30分钟的嬉戏活动干预（N = 8）或休息期（N = 8）。对一系列因素进行了多因素/协变量一般线性模型分析，这些因素包括年龄、性别、训练经验以及每天达到标准所需的试验次数。结果表明，学习后进行嬉戏活动可提高训练表现，这表现为在初次习得任务24小时后重新学习该任务所需的试验次数减少（嬉戏活动组：平均试验次数26，标准差6；休息组：平均试验次数43，标准差19，效应大小1.2）。作为唤醒指标的平均心率在嬉戏活动组干预期间（143次/分钟，标准差16）显著高于休息组（86次/分钟，标准差19，P < 0.001）。训练期间两组唾液皮质醇无显著差异，但嬉戏活动后显著降低（T：-4.1，P < 0.01）。据我们所知，这是训练后活动可能影响犬类训练表现的首个证据。
