Scientists have found that the connections between humans and their dogs have the Same biochemical basis as the mother-child bond, and it's strengthened by the same thing: a gaze (注视).
A new study in Science, led by Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University in Japan, carried out a series of experiments that examined the impact of the gaze in the dogs and their owners. "Our data suggest that owner-dog bonding is similar to human parent-child bonding," Kikusui said. "And this is surprising to us because there is not a mother-baby relationship between humans and dogs, but both of them have acquired similar skills. "
The researchers found that when owners and their dogs gazed into one another's eyes during a 30-minute period, levels of oxytocin (催产素）increased in both the humans and the dogs. Oxytocin is a chemical associated with trust and maternal (母性的）bonding — it increases when you're close to someone you love and gives you that warm feeling. Kikusui aid he believed the gaze was learned by dogs as part of their efforts to communicate and form social bonds with humans.
The latest studies have shown that dogs probably evolved from wolves about 15, 000 years ago, in Europe. Interestingly, Kikusui didn't find the same oxytocin response in wolves and their owners. "These results suggest that wolves do not use gazes as a form of social communication with humans, which might be expected because wolves tend to use eye contact as a threat," the researchers wrote.
Duke university's Evan MacLean and Brian Hare said, "This is particularly true when it comes to how dogs understand the social world. Even as young dogs, they naturally respond to human gestures, such as pointing cues, to find hidden food or toy rewards. "
MacLean said he felt the Japanese study strengthens the idea that the human-dog relationship is like a parent-child relationship and could help explain the biological basis that are involved in the use of dogs in medicine to treat some diseases or various forms of stress.
"If it turns out there are benefits of using oxytocin for some of these disabilities, using assistance dogs will actually be a fairly natural way to cause the system to start working," he said. "There may be some sort of medicinal value of our communication with dogs that we could use."
