Gillian Herold

Professor Zugnoni
UWP 1Y
21 October 2016
My Credible Sources
The video of the experiment provided from the main discoverer, Nagasawa and her colleagues,
to Smithsonian is credible for multiple reasons. It is actual footage from the experiments, and it
is provided by a well-known institution. This institution includes 19 museums and 9 research
centers which includes a variety of known, credible authors in the science field.

I used a magazine archive listed in the module, National Geographic, to read their take on the
experiment involving Oxytocin. This article is credible as it lists the previous works of the writer,
Ed Yong. The writer is specifically in the science department and with published works in the
New York Times, Times, and BBC.

I am using the old and original discoveries by Nagasawa and her colleagues from 2009, which
was published in the Japanese Psychological Research journal. Even though, this article is a bit
old, there has only been a 6-year gap of information in which not much has changed besides the
final discovery. The journal is credible as it comes from the Research Department of Animal
Science and Biotechnology at Azabu University in Japan. Therefore, it comes from a credible
source and from those who have expertise in Animal Science.

Dog Gazes Hijack the Brain's Maternal Bonding System

Previously, I read an article about how this is the first experiment involving a human and dogs
connection. After reading this article, it states that is the first ever experiment involving oxytocin
levels between members of different species, not just humans and dogs. This article in particular
discusses how dogs are able to coexist with us unlike domesticated wolves, their ancestors.
Specifically, it discusses how dogs AND humans both evolved in order for this bond to become
as strong as it today. This experiment not only involved dogs, their owners, and strangers, but
also used rodents and their pups to demonstrate an increase in oxytocin levels. From the
information I obtained in this article, I will better be able to explain the chemical bond by
discussing how these two different species coexist and how they adapted to allow this
connection. I will also include either the video or the link to the experiment video so my readers
can better visualize this discovery.

This study is the first to show oxytocin at work in both members of different species, and it
suggests that the effect co-evolved over the long history of dog domestication.
"Dogs successfully coexist with humans because they have adapted the bonding mechanism
[used in] relations with humans,
Through This Chemical Loop, Dogs Win Our Hearts
In this article, the authors further discuss oxytocin by defining it as a mammalian hormone which
draws our attention to people. Also included in the article is the analysis of two writers from
Duke University, which explains that the two brains of different species become one in which the
bond increases simultaneously and is a chemical loop. The writer further explains this connection
by explaining the difference between a dog from its ancestor. In order to explain the difference,
the writer cited another experiment by Nagasawa in which she used wolves that had a daily
experience with people. The experiment results showed that wolves were unable to trigger an
increase in oxytocin due to the lack of social cues. I am able to use this article and the given
experiment with wolves to further the history of these experiments. Previously I had no idea
Nagasawa first released some of her discoveries in 2009 on the same topic.

It involves oxytocin, a mammalian hormone that draws our attention to social cues
Dogs seem to have hijacked this chemical connection between mother and child, to cement a
similarly strong bond with their owners
This chemical loop unites the brains of two different species
Attachment Between Humans and Dogs

As previously mentioned, I have just discovered that Nagasawa released some of her
discoveries, before the big 2015 discovery, in 2009. This article contains her first results and
findings of human-dog bonds and why Nagasawa wanted to pursue this hypothesis. The research
article starts by discussing that Nagasawa was interested mostly because science suggested that
dogs acquired the cognitive ability to communicate with us. This acquired ability involves dogs
specifically recognizing their owners figure, by recognizing their figure they choose to use visual
cues in order to communicate from their species to another. Originally, no one had studied dogs
because Scientists believed they were genetically modified which would mean the research
would be invalid. I intend to use this information in Nagasawas first research article to discuss
the original hypothesis, potential problems, and add a history/evolution of this discovery.
Attachment requires the distinction of a specific figure using species-specific social cues and
specific responses to the figure, brought about by neuroendocrinological homeostatic functions
as well as behavioral aspects. It has been shown that dogs can distinguish a particular human
figure (e.g. the owner) and exhibit specific autonomic reactions.
However, dogs were rarely evaluated as subjects in cognitive science until approximately 15
years ago, because they were originally thought to be genetically modified by humans, and
considered as belonging to humans as livestock.