TEXTO:
Dogs and humans
Dogs are called “man’s best friend” — women’s,
too — and scientists say the bond between people and
their pooches may be deeper than you might think.
Researchers in Japan said that oxytocin, a hormone that
[5] among other things helps reinforce bonds between parents
and their babies, increases in humans and their dogs
when they interact, particularly when gazing into one
another’s eyes. They described a series of experiments
that suggest that people and their canine companions
[10] have mutually developed this instinctual bonding
mechanism in the thousands of years since dogs were
first domesticated.
Sometimes called the “love hormone,” oxytocin is
made in a brain structure called the hypothalamus
[15] and secreted from the pituitary gland. It is involved
in emotional bonding, maternal behavior, child birth,
breast-feeding, sexual arousal and other functions.
“Oxytocin has many positive impacts on human
physiology and psychology,” said Takefumi Kikusui, a
[20] veterinary medicine professor at Japan’s Azabu University,
whose research was published in the journal Science.
In one experiment, dogs were put in a room with
their owners. The researchers tracked their interaction
and measured oxytocin levels through urine samples.
[25] People whose dogs had the most eye contact with
them — a mutual gaze — registered the largest increases
in oxytocin levels. The dogs also had an oxytocin spike
correlating with that of their owner. The researchers
conducted a similar experiment with wolves, close
[30] relatives of dogs, and found that no such thing happened
despite the fact that the wolves had been raised by the
people.
In another experiment, the researchers sprayed
oxytocin into dogs’ noses and put them in a room with
[35] their owners as well as people the dogs did not know.
With the female dogs, and not the males, this increased
the mutual gazing between dogs and their owners and
also led to an oxytocin increase in the owners. “I
personally believe that there is a tight bond between the
[40] owner and dogs,” Kikusui said. “I have three standard
poodles. I strongly feel the tight bonding with these dogs.
Actually, I participated in the experiment, and my oxytocin
boosted up after the eye gaze, like 300 percent,” Kikusui
added.
DOGS are... Disponível em: <www.reuters.com.br/article/us-sciencedogs-idUSKBNON728220150416>. Acesso em: 13 maio 2016.
The study mentioned in the text
