Anna Scandurra

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Biology

Emotional dysregulation involving anger can have severe consequences on the individual's psychosocial and emotional functioning. This study aimed to investigate the role that the companion animal bond and the personality dimension of trait anger play in explaining affective dysregulation. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to 365 part...

This study investigates the musical perception skills of dogs through playback experiments. Dogs were trained to distinguish between two different target locations based on a sequence of four ascending or descending notes. A total of 16 dogs of different breeds, age, and sex, but all of them with at least basic training, were recruited for the stud...

The primary goal of this study was to explore the social buffering effect that humans offer to goats and dogs with limited exposure to human socialization, particularly in situations involving interactions with unfamiliar humans. A total of 13 dogs and 14 goats were selected for the study, all of which had limited prior socialization with humans. E...

The mechanism underlying the transition from the pre-symptomatic to the symptomatic state is a crucial aspect of epileptogenesis. SYN2 is a member of a multigene family of synaptic vesicle phosphoproteins playing a fundamental role in controlling neurotransmitter release. Human SYN2 gene mutations are associated with epilepsy and autism spectrum di...

Spatial navigation has been extensively investigated for detecting sex differences in mammals, and the domesticated guinea pig ( Cavia aperea porcellus ) serves as a promising species for such studies, due to distinct parental investment between the sexes. In our exploration of sex-related effects on spatial navigation, we focused on the learning p...

Simple Summary This research investigates the influence of limited human socialization on the socio-cognitive abilities and interactions with unfamiliar individuals of a selected group of domesticated dogs and goats. Both dogs and goats were raised and kept under conditions with limited human socialization, and their behavior was examined through t...

Cat welfare is a topic of growing interest in the scientific literature. Although previous studies have focused on the effects of living style (i.e., indoor/outdoor) on cat welfare, there has been a noticeable dearth of analysis regarding the impact of lifestyle on cats' inclination and mode of communication with humans. Our research aimed to analy...

The "isolation syndrome" is a term used to describe the stress responses observed in highly social species when they lack social interactions. This syndrome affects various aspects of an individual's welfare, including hormonal, behavioral, and physiological systems. Dogs, known for their social nature, have been used as a model to study the effect...

We report an observational, double-blind, experimental study that examines the effects of human emotional odors on puppies between 3 and 6 months and adult dogs (one year and upwards). Both groups were exposed to control, human fear, and happiness odors in a between subjects' design. The duration of all behaviors directed to the apparatus, the door...

Simple Summary We investigated the relationship between circulating levels of the hormones oxytocin and cortisol and some behaviors directed at humans by calves in the impossible task paradigm. Cortisol correlates positively with the latency of behaviors directed at the caregiver and the duration of behaviors directed at the apparatus correlates ne...

We report an observational, double-blind study that examined puppies’ behaviors while engaged in solving an experimental food retrieval task (food retrieval task instrument: FRTI). The experimental setting included passive social distractors (i.e., the dog’s owner and a stranger). The focus was on how the social and physical environment shapes pupp...

A novel livestock management system (LMS) for dairy cows mainly based on a high forage:concentrate ratio, no silage, and large outdoor paddocks, has been introduced in Italy during the last five years. It was proved that such system, further than improving the quality of milk, benefits the health status of cows. The goal of the present research was...

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of DìRelaxTM, a nutraceutical formulated to reduce anxiety in dogs, using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. The C-BARQ questionnaire, some clinical investigations, and the impossible task test were performed in dogs before and after treatment. The C-BARQ questionnaire is particularly useful for...

Sex differences in the behavioral responses of Labrador Retriever dogs in the Strange Situation Test were explored. Behaviors expressed by dogs during seven 3-min episodes were analyzed through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The scores of factors obtained were analyzed with a Generalized Linear Mixed Model to reveal the effects of the dog’s...

This paper intends to apprise the reader regarding the existing knowledge on the neuroanatomical distribution of GnIH-like peptides in in fish and amphibians in both the adult stage and during ontogenesis. The neuroanatomical distribution of GnIH-like neuropeptides appears quite different in the studied species, irrespective of the evolutionary clo...

This study explored a possible relationship between the circulating oxytocin, cortisol, and the willingness of dairy cows to engage in social behaviors with humans in an experimental context. The behaviors of twenty-nine cows were recorded during the impossible task paradigm, a procedure aimed at creating a violation of expectancy, in the presence...

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of DìRelaxTM, a nutraceutical formulated to reduce anxiety in dogs. The CBARQ questionnaire, some clinical investigations, and the impossible task test were performed in dogs before and after the treatment. Results showed an ameliorative effect on the performances of treated dogs during the solvable phas...

Octopuses represent interesting model studies for different fields of scientific inquiry. The present study provides a bibliometric analysis on research trends in octopuses biological studies. The analysis was executed from January 1985 to December 2020 including scientific products reported in the Web of Science database. The period of study was s...

In recent decades, cognitive and behavioral knowledge in dogs seems to have developed considerably, as deduced from the published peer-reviewed articles. However, to date, the worldwide trend of scientific research on dog cognition and behavior has never been explored using a bibliometric approach, while the evaluation of scientific research has in...

This research focuses on sex differences in the behavioral patterns of dogs when they are exposed to human chemosignals (sweat) produced in happy and fear contexts. No age, breed or apparatus-directed behavior differences were found. However, when exposed to fear chemosignals, dogs’ behavior towards their owners, and their stress signals lasted lon...

In this review, we have analyzed the studies on the “mismatch paradigm” or “contrasting paradigm”, in which the word indicates an intent that is opposite to the gesture in dogs and children. The studies on children highlighted the importance of the type of gestural messages that, when delivered in a non-ostensive manner, assume less value than the...

Throughout their evolutionary history, humans have tried to domesticate a variety of wild terrestrial mammals, resulting in a limited number that has been successfully domesticated. Among these domesticated species, domestic goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) are a useful model species to study the effects of ontogenesis on the socio-cognitive abilities...

Objective The sense of olfaction has been considered of minor importance in human communication. In recent years, evidence has emerged that humans might be influenced by unconscious messages sent through chemosignals in body odors. Data concerning the ability of humans to recognize fear, maybe related to the evolutionary role of these emotions in t...

Human body odors contain chemosignals that make species-specific communication possible. Such communication is without communicative intent and is generally below the threshold of consciousness. Human recipients of these chemosignals produced during emotional conditions display a simulacrum of the emotional state under which the chemosignal was pro...

Simple Summary: The study showed that the use of mirrors may represent a low-cost useful tool to stimulate the expression of natural behaviors when rabbits are bred in small groups in a free-range system. The use of mirrors appeared to simulate the condition in which rabbits were allowed to have visual contacts with the other groups, improving impo...

Impulsive choices reflect an individual’s tendency to prefer a smaller immediate reward over a larger delayed one. Here, we have developed a behavioural test which can be easily applied to assess impulsive choices in dogs. Dogs were trained to associate one of two equidistant locations with a larger food amount when a smaller amount was presented i...

The objective of this research was to investigate the efficacy of DìSeniorTM, a nutraceutical formulated to improve cognitive functions in elderly dogs. To this purpose, some clinical and metabolic investigations and a spatial navigation test were performed in treated and untreated dogs. Moreover, the nutraceutical was also tested on primary hippoc...

This study aimed at improving our understanding of the ontogenesis of dogs’ attention toward humans. To this aim, dogs’ attention towards their handler while performing a ‘Stay-in-place’ task was analyzed, in condition of increasing difficulty represented by the introduction of distractors. To highlight the role of experience in the absence of deli...

Simple Summary: The aim of this study was to test whether ovariectomy in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) could impair a female's ability in a socio-cognitive task. Forty pet dogs (18 intact females (IF) and 22 gonadectomized females (GF)) were tested in the object choice task paradigm using a human proximal pointing gesture. For the analysis, the fre...

Inhibitory control is a collection of several processes that are aimed to refrain from any impulsive response in the subject during inappropriate situations. Evidence suggests that in dogs, the inhibitory control is affected by domestication process, but also experiences during ontogeny could be an important driver in acquiring inhibitory control....

In this paper, we review the scientific reports of sex-related differences in dogs as compared to the outcomes described for wild animals. Our aim was to explore whether the differences in male and female dogs were affected by the domestication process, in which artificial selection is the main driver. For this purpose, we used information regardin...

In order to explore the decision-making processes of horses, we designed an impossible task paradigm aimed at causing an expectancy violation in horses. Our goals were to verify whether this paradigm is effective in horses by analyzing their motivation in trying to solve the task and the mode of the potential helping request in such a context. In t...

We examined the distribution of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-diaphorase (NADPH-d)-reactive elements in the central nervous system (CNS) of the common toad, Bufo bufo. The investigation involved adult male and female toads collected during the breeding season. Labeled neurons of different morphological appearances (weakly or darkly st...

We examined the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) activity of horses in response to human body odors (BOs) produced under happy and fear states. The ANS response of horses was analyzed in terms of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features extracted in the frequency domain. Our results revealed that human BOs induce sympathetic and parasympathetic changes...

In this study we assessed the effect of sex and gonadectomy on the type of spatial strategy (allocentric or egocentric) preferentially used by dogs in the acquisition of a navigation task and their ability to resort to the non-preferred strategy. Fifty-six dogs were involved in the study, divided in four equally sized groups based on sex and gonade...

We report a study examining interspecies emotion transfer via body odors (chemosignals). Do human body odors (chemosignals) produced under emotional conditions of happiness and fear provide information that is detectable by pet dogs (Labrador and Golden retrievers)? The odor samples were collected from the axilla of male donors not involved in the...

The present study assessed how dogs weigh gestural versus verbal information communicated to them by humans in transitive actions. The dogs were trained by their owners to fetch an object under three conditions: a bimodal congruent condition characterized by using gestures and voices simultaneously; a unimodal gestural condition characterized by us...

Researchers have suggested that dogs are able to recognise human faces, but conclusive evidence has yet to be found. Experiment 1 of this study investigated whether dogs can recognise humans using visual information from the face/head region, and whether this also occurs in conditions of suboptimal visibility of the face. Dogs were presented with t...

In many studies that have investigated whether dogs' capacities to understand human pointing gestures are aspects of evolutionary or developmental social competences, family-owned dogs have been compared to shelter dogs. However, for most of these studies, the origins of shelter dogs were unknown. Some shelter dogs may have lived with families befo...

The impossible task paradigm provides insight into the decision-making processes, particularly in the realm of expectancy violation and consists of several solvable trials in which the experimental subject solves an easy task to obtain a reward, followed by an unsolvable trial in which the reward becomes unreachable. This paradigm is a useful tool...

Depressive symptoms and other neuropsychiatric dysfunctions are common in neurodegenerative disorders, including chronic pain and dementia. A correlation between the β-amyloid protein accumulation and the development of depression has been suggested, however the underlying mechanisms are unknown. D-Aspartate (D-Asp) is a free D-amino acid found in...

We assessed how highly trained dogs respond to gestural versus verbal signals when their handlers or an unfamiliar person asked them to perform an obedience task. Dogs were requested to perform four different actions (“Sit”, “Down”, “Stay” and “Come”) upon receiving congruent (only gestural or only verbal) or incongruent signals (gestural and verba...

In order to investigate the effect of sex and gonadectomy on dog’s spatial performance, 64 pet dogs were recruited until obtaining four equally sized groups, namely intact males (IM), orchiectomised males (OM), intact females (IF) and ovariectomised females (OF). Dogs were tested in a T-maze paradigm for their performance in learning the way out of...

When communicating with dogs, humans often combine verbal and gestural cues. Here we compared the relative relevance of gestural versus verbal stimuli in relation with the familiarity of the cue-giver. Fifteen water rescue dogs were asked to perform four actions (SIT, LIE DOWN, STAY and COME), by providing them only gestural, only verbal and contra...

Several studies have focused on how dogs use visual information about human faces, but their ability to recognize the faces of familiar people is not yet understood. We tested 30 dogs on their ability to recognize their owners by using face information alone. In a series of two-choice tasks, dogs had to choose between their owner and a stranger, wh...

Being able to predict the future position of a moving object is crucial to hunt a prey and also to communicate and interact with partners. The aim of this study was to investigate a) if the violation of expectancy about movement speed modifies the dogs’ attention and b) the effect of previous stimulus exposure. We developed an inferred motion task,...

Sex differences in spatial cognition have been demonstrated in many mammal species, but not widely studied in dogs. Sixty-four pet dogs divided in four equally sized groups (intact males, orchiectomized males, intact females, ovariectomized females) were tested in a T-maze task consisting of three stages. In the first learning test, dogs had to lea...

Motion perception is one of the main properties of the visual system. Although characteristics of this ability are well studied in humans, there is no data about dogs’ sensitivity in detecting global motion. The aim of our study was to define thresholds of global motion perception in dogs and to investigate how features of the stimulus affect such...

We assessed how water rescue dogs, which were equally accustomed to respond to gestural and verbal requests, weighted gestural versus verbal information when asked by their owner to perform an action. Dogs were asked to perform four different actions (“sit”, “lie down”, “stay”, “come”) providing them with a single source of information (in Phase 1,...

Butterfly communities can be modified by the activities of large mammals. The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is one of the most common mammals in Europe and has notably expanded its distribution range in recent decades. The present work aimed to investigate the possible effect of wild boar rooting activity on butterflies in olive groves inside the “Cilento...

Life experiences and living conditions can influence the problem-solving strategies and the communicative abilities of dogs with humans. The goals of this study were to determine any behavioural differences between Labrador Retrievers living in a kennel and those living in a house as pets and to assess whether kennel dogs show preferences in social...

The nervus terminalis (NT) is the most anterior of the vertebrate cranial nerves. In teleost fish, the NT runs across all olfactory components and shows high morphological variability within this taxon. We compare the anatomical distribution, average number and size of the FMRFamide-immunoreactive (ir) NT cells of fourteen teleost species with diff...

Water rescue training produces dog-human dyads specialized in rescuing people in the water by promoting a strong cooperative relationship between dogs and their handlers. The present study aims to assess whether this training also affects the human-dog attachment bond using an adapted version of the “Strange Situation Test” (SST), consisting of 7 e...

The role of observational learning in dogs has drawn great interest from the scientific community. However, only a few studies explored its potential use for training purposes. The aim of the present study was to assess the potential benefit of conspecific observational learning in a dog training context. Fifty adult Labrador retrievers were recrui...

Proliferation and apoptosis are fundamental processes in the development of the retina, and a proper balance of the two phenomena is crucial to correct development of the organ. Despite intense investigation in different vertebrates, only a few studies have analyzed the cell death and the cell division quantitatively in the same species during deve...

The present study aimed at evaluating possible behavioural differences between guide dogs living in a kennel and interacting with a trainer and those living in a house and interacting with a blind person and their family, when they are faced with an unsolvable task. Fifty-two Labrador retrievers were tested: 13 Trained Guide dogs at the end of thei...

Guide dogs change environments, stimuli and human reference figures many times throughout their lives, which may require them to adapt their behavior to new circumstances. The first goal of this study was to check for eventual behavioral differences between guide dogs at the end of training and those living with a blind person (and their family). O...

In the Mediterranean landscape fires are common, sometimes arising due to human activity. Fire influences the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground, thus affecting the diversity and distribution of animal and plant species. In this study, we analysed the effect of fire on butterfly diversity at the Site of Community Importance (SCI) “Monti di...

We studied the possible effects of anthropogenic disturbances, such as intentional introductions of wild boar (Sus scrofa) for hunting and the presence of covered landfill, on butterfly communities. In the study 1, butterflies were surveyed in 5 Rooted (R) and 5 Control areas (RC) within olive groves. In study 2, we choose 5 plots of Mediterranean...

Various studies have assessed the role of life experiences, including learning opportunities, living conditions and the quality of dog-human relationships, in the use of human cues and problem-solving ability. The current study investigates how and to what extent training affects the behaviour of dogs and the communication of dogs with humans by co...

NADPH-diaphorase is a key enzyme in the synthesis of the gaseous neurotransmitter nitric oxide. We compare the distribution of NADPH-d in the brain of 4 species of hylid frogs. NADPH-d-positive fibres are present throughout much of the brain, whereas stained cell groups are distributed in well-defined regions. While most brain areas consistently sh...

During water rescue training, dogs must be highly attentive to their handler and ready to obtain information from him/her; they are strongly rewarded for carefully looking at the handler during the obedience exercises. We explore the potential effect of training experience on the behaviour of gazing towards humans and on problem-solving strategies...