Some researchers from the Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine at the University of Helsinki conducted a study on the effect of oxytocin in domestic dogs. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that effects social behavior and emotional reactions in mammals. It is commonly called the "affection hormone".
To see what adding more oxytocin might do, the researchers taught a bunch of dogs to rest their chins on a little bar (like at the eye doctor) so their eye movements and pupil dilation could be measured while they looked at pictures of unfamiliar human faces- some angry, some happy. One group of dogs were given a placebo of nasal saline, the other group was given nasal oxytocin.
Dogs that snorted saline reacted more strongly to the angry faces. Dogs that snorted oxytocin reacted more strongly to the happy faces.
The researchers concluded that oxytocin, when snorted "changes the allocation of attention and emotional arousal in domestic dogs".
What does this mean? Well, similar studies were done with humans and monkeys but the results were not the same as with dogs. The oxytocin caused the dogs to focus on the happy faces while the other species only reacted less strongly to both the happy and angry faces when under the influence of oxytocin. Researchers think this selective response in dogs will maybe "facilitate communication between humans and dogs" (and monkeys and dogs, presumably).
It's clear to see, that there's still some kinks to be ironed out. For one thing, in general, monkeys and people don't consider looking into someone's eyes as threatening as dogs do. Does this skew the results? It is difficult to imagine that it wouldn't. Maybe the researchers will look into it.
Read the study
here.
