Turcsán Borbála, Román Viktor, Lévay György, Lendvai Balázs, Kedves Rita, Petró Eszter, Topál József
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
Pharmacology and Drug Safety Research, Gedeon Richter Plc., Budapest, Hungary.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 Feb 24;9:785805. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.785805. eCollection 2022.
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.
长期以来，人们一直认为催产素对社会认知和亲社会行为总体上具有积极影响；然而，最近的研究结果表明，催产素仅在特定条件下才具有有益效果。本研究的目的是探讨社交能力与鼻内注射催产素对实验用比格犬社交行为的影响之间的潜在关联。我们预期催产素治疗对在社交测试组中基线表现较低的犬只具有更显著的积极影响。36只成年雌雄犬在双盲、交叉设计中接受了32国际单位的鼻内催产素和生理盐水（安慰剂）治疗，两次治疗之间间隔17 - 20天。治疗后40分钟，犬只参与了由八种情境组成的社交测试组。这些情境在一个时间段内进行，完成需要20 - 30分钟。对编码行为进行主成分分析确定了四个成分（互动意愿、对社交接触的偏好、对非社交威胁的无厌恶反应以及对社交威胁的无厌恶反应）。在安慰剂条件下受试者的行为用于评估其基线表现。我们发现，催产素治疗对行为的影响因个体在所有成分中的基线表现而异，但在敏感性较低的分析中，只有两个治疗×基线表现的相互作用仍然显著。与我们的假设一致，催产素给药增加了犬只对人类的寻求接触和依恋行为，但仅针对那些基线表现较低的犬只。基线表现较低的犬只在催产素给药后对社交威胁也表现出比安慰剂给药后显著更多的积极（友好）反应，而对于基线表现较高的犬只，催产素给药导致更消极（恐惧）的反应。这些结果表明，与对人类的研究结果类似，催产素对犬只社交行为的影响并非普遍积极，而是受到个体特征和情境的限制。尽管如此，催产素给药有可能改善在与人类互动时社交能力较差 的实验用比格犬的社交行为，这可能具有应用和动物福利方面的意义。
