Akiyama Junko, Ohta Mitsuaki
Department of Animal Health Technology, Yamazaki University of Animal Health Technology, Tokyo 192-0364, Japan.
School of Veterinary Medicine, Azabu University, Sagamihara-shi 252-5201, Japan.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Sep 18;11(9):2732. doi: 10.3390/ani11092732.
The hormone oxytocin is involved in various aspects of the relationship between humans and animals. Dog walking is a common activity for dog owners and their dogs. The walk, of course, should be good for the health of the dog as well as its owner. In Experiment I, we assessed whether salivary oxytocin and cortisol in dog owners changed because of walking their dogs. Ten owners walked with their dogs and walked alone. Similar to other previous research, walking with a dog did not significantly change oxytocin and cortisol. Therefore, in Experiment II, we investigated the effect of dog walking on brain noradrenergic and GABAergic neural activity, as indicated by salivary MHPG and GABA, in 14 dog owners. Walking with a dog reduced salivary MHPG compared to walking alone, and MHPG was correlated negatively with GABA. Thus, dog walking activated GABAergic nerves in the brain and suppressed noradrenergic nerves, effectively relieving stress.
激素催产素参与人与动物关系的各个方面。遛狗是狗主人及其狗狗的常见活动。当然，散步对狗狗及其主人的健康都有益。在实验一中，我们评估了狗主人唾液中的催产素和皮质醇是否因遛狗而发生变化。十名主人分别带着狗散步和独自散步。与之前的其他研究类似，与狗一起散步并未显著改变催产素和皮质醇。因此，在实验二中，我们调查了遛狗对14名狗主人唾液中3-甲氧基-4-羟基苯乙二醇（MHPG）和γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）所指示的大脑去甲肾上腺素能和γ-氨基丁酸能神经活动的影响。与独自散步相比，与狗一起散步会降低唾液中的MHPG，且MHPG与GABA呈负相关。因此，遛狗激活了大脑中的γ-氨基丁酸能神经并抑制了去甲肾上腺素能神经，有效缓解了压力。
