Volume 5, Issue FEB, 2014, Article number Article 71
a
Clever Dog Lab, Messerli Research Institute, University of
Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna and University
of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
b Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
c Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France
b Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
c Royal Canin Research Center, Aimargues, France
Abstract
Attention is pivotal
to consciousness, perception, cognition, and working memory in all
mammals, and therefore changes in attention over the lifespan are likely
to influence development and aging of all of these functions. Due to
their evolutionary and developmental history, the dog is being
recognized as an important species for modeling human healthspan, aging
and associated diseases. In this study, we investigated the normal
lifespan development of attentiveness of pet dogs in naturalistic
situations, and compared the resulting cross-sectional developmental
trajectories with data from previous studies in humans. We tested a
sample of 145 Border collies
(6 months to 14 years) with humans and objects or food as attention
attractors, in order to assess their attentional capture, sustained and
selective attention, and sensorimotor abilities. Our results reveal
differences in task relevance in sustained attentional performance when
watching a human or a moving object, which may be explained by life-long
learning processes involving such stimuli. During task switching we
found that dogs' selective attention and sensorimotor abilities showed
differences between age groups, with performance peaking at middle age.
Dogs' sensorimotor abilities showed a quadratic distribution with age
and were correlated with selective attention performance. Our results
support the hypothesis that the development and senescence of
sensorimotor and attentional control may be fundamentally interrelated.
Additionally, attentional capture, sustained attention, and sensorimotor
control developmental trajectories paralleled those found in humans.
Given that the development of attention is similar across humans and
dogs, we propose that the same regulatory mechanisms are likely to be
present in both species. Finally, this cross-sectional study provides
the first description of age group changes in attention over the
lifespan of pet dogs. © 2014 Wallis, Range, Müller, Serisier, Huber and
Virányi.
Author keywords
Aging; Attention; Attentional control; Clicker training; Development; Dog; Learning; Lifespan
ISSN: 16641078Source Type: Journal
Original language: English
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00071Document Type: Article
