@article{faaf7d01e8bc47ec9db5d33311573e80,
title = "Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Domestic Dogs",
abstract = "Although we know that dogs evolved from wolves, it remains unclear how domestication affected dog cognition. One hypothesis suggests dog domestication altered social maturation by a process of selecting for an attraction to humans.1–3 Under this account, dogs became more flexible in using inherited skills to cooperatively communicate with a new social partner that was previously feared and expressed these unusual social skills early in development.4–6 Here, we comparedog (n = 44) and wolf (n = 37) puppies, 5–18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. We find that dog puppies are more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully, and make more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species are similarly attracted to familiar objects and perform similarly on non-social measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results are consistent with the idea that domestication enhanced the cooperative-communicative abilities of dogs as selection for attraction to humans altered social maturation.",
keywords = "canine cognition, cooperative communication, dogs, domestication, eye contact, gesture comprehension, pointing, puppies, social cognition, wolves",
author = "Hannah Salomons and Smith, {Kyle C.M.} and Megan Callahan-Beckel and Margaret Callahan and Kerinne Levy and Kennedy, {Brenda S.} and Bray, {Emily E.} and Gnanadesikan, {Gitanjali E.} and Horschler, {Daniel J.} and Margaret Gruen and Jingzhi Tan and Philip White and vonHoldt, {Bridgett M.} and MacLean, {Evan L.} and Brian Hare",
note = "Funding Information: The authors wish to the thank the staff and volunteers at the Wildlife Science Center and Canine Companions for Independence for making this research possible. We also wish to thank Kerri Rodriguez, Leah Kaiser, Ben Allen, Kylie Grady, James Brooks, Christina Burt, Morgan Ferrans, Madison Moore, Charlotte Burnham, Anya Parks, and Sam Lee for their help with data collection. This work was funded in part by grants from the Office of Naval Research ( N00014-16-12682 ), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( NIH-1R01HD097732 ), and the AKC Canine Health Foundation ( #2700 ). G.E.G. was additionally funded by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program ( DGE-1746060 ). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, or National Science Foundation. Funding Information: The authors wish to the thank the staff and volunteers at the Wildlife Science Center and Canine Companions for Independence for making this research possible. We also wish to thank Kerri Rodriguez, Leah Kaiser, Ben Allen, Kylie Grady, James Brooks, Christina Burt, Morgan Ferrans, Madison Moore, Charlotte Burnham, Anya Parks, and Sam Lee for their help with data collection. This work was funded in part by grants from the Office of Naval Research (N00014-16-12682), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH-1R01HD097732), and the AKC Canine Health Foundation (#2700). G.E.G. was additionally funded by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1746060). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, or National Science Foundation. Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, all authors; Writing ? Original Draft, B.H. and H.S.; Writing ? Reviewing and editing, all authors. The authors declare no competing interests. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier Inc.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
day = "26",
doi = "10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.051",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "31",
pages = "3137--3144.e11",
journal = "Current Biology",
issn = "0960-9822",
publisher = "Cell Press",
number = "14",
}