Eniko Kubinyi

Eötvös Loránd University · Department of Ethology

Movement interactions and the underlying social structure in groups have relevance across many social-living species. Collective motion of groups could be based on an "egalitarian" decision system, but in practice it is often influenced by underlying social network structures and by individual characteristics. We investigated whether dominance rank...

Over the past two decades, farm animal-assisted therapies have become popular. However, the effects of farm animals on healthy people’s mental states have not yet been investigated. In Study 1, we aimed to explore whether positive effects of human-animal interaction (HAI) can be detected in healthy farm volunteers even after short-term (2–3 hours)...

Rodents serve as an important model for examining both individual and collective behavior. Dominance within rodent social structures can determine access to critical resources, such as food and mating opportunities. Yet, many aspects of the intricate interplay between individual behaviors and the resulting group social hierarchy, especially its evo...

Domestication of dogs from their shared ancestors with wolves occurred more than 15,000 years ago and affected many characteristics of the species. We analyzed the blood RNA sequence data of 12 dogs and 11 wolves from Europe and Asia to shed more light on the domestication history of dogs. We implemented a differential gene expression analysis, a w...

Selecting a dog that is incompatible with the owner’s expectations can negatively impact both parties. Previous studies on dog acquisition have primarily focused on shelter environments, using closed-ended questions to assess hypothetical preferences. In contrast, our study employed open-ended questions with a convenience sample of Austrian dog own...

Rodents serve as an important model for examining both individual and collective behavior. Dominance within rodent social structures can determine access to critical resources, such as food and mating opportunities. Yet, many aspects of the intricate interplay between individual behaviors and the resulting group social hierarchy, especially its evo...

Strong selection on complex traits can lead to skewed trait means and reduced trait variability in populations. An example of this phenomenon can be evidenced in allele frequency changes and skewed trait distributions driven by persistent human-directed selective pressures in domesticated species. Dog domestication is linked to several genomic vari...

Computed tomography (CT) is a non-invasive, three-dimensional imaging tool used in medical imaging, forensic science, industry and engineering, anthropology, and archaeology. The current study used high-resolution medical CT scanning of 431 animal skulls, including 399 dog skulls from 152 breeds, 14 cat skulls from 9 breeds, 14 skulls from 8 wild c...

Research into dogs' olfactory ability is growing rapidly. However, generalising based on scientific results is challenging, because research has been typically conducted on a few specially trained subjects of a few breeds tested in different environmental conditions. We investigated the effects of temperature and humidity (outdoors), age, test loca...

Perceptions of dog owners and veterinary professionals (surgeons/nurses) can influence the preventive healthcare and treatment provided to dogs, especially at the senior life-stage, when chronic diseases become more common. This study compared perceptions of healthcare of dogs as they age between dog owners and veterinary professionals. Data from t...

Efforts to counteract age-related decline have resulted in the emergence of various interventions. However, everyday benefits are rarely reported in elderly people. Dogs provide an excellent model for studying aging and interventions due to their similarities to humans. Our aim was to investigate whether a combined physical and cognitive interventi...

The current study investigates whether there are statistically independent age-related influences on the canine cognitive structure and how individual factors moderate cognitive aging on both cross-sectional and longitudinal samples. A battery of seven tasks was administered to 129 pet dogs, on which exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses wer...

Since many dog adoptions end with the dog being abandoned due to unmet expectations, it is important to know how certain demographic variables and previous experiences of the owners relate to the characteristics of the dog they are looking for. We asked Austrian dog owners about why they chose their dog in an online questionnaire. Based on their fr...

Dogs interpret cues as being about location, which human infants would relate to objects. This spatial bias could shed light on the evolution of object-centered thought, however, research needs to rule out that this is not a by-product of dogs' weaker (compared to humans) visual capacities. In this study, we used a data set in which dogs were teste...

Pet keeping has deep roots in the culture of post-industrial countries. Through daily interactions, media, and economic processes, it affects even those who do not own pets. Treating pets as 'family members' has likely become more common since the early 20th century, but research in this area has mostly relied on convenience samples and has mainly...

Body-awareness is one of the fundamental modules of self-representation. We investigated how body-awareness could contribute to dogs' decision making in a novel spatial problem where multiple solutions are possible. Family dogs (N = 68) had to obtain a treat from behind a transparent fence. They had two options: either detour around the fence (7 m)...

The shape of the cranium is one of the most notable physical changes induced in domestic dogs through selective breeding and is measured using the cephalic index (CI). High CI (a ratio of skull width to skull length > 60) is characterized by a short muzzle and flat face and is referred to as brachycephaly. Brachycephalic dogs display some potential...

The twofold life expectancy difference between dog breeds predicts differential behavioral and cognitive aging patterns between short- and long-lived dogs. To investigate this prediction, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis using survey data from over 15,000 dogs. We examined the effect of expected lifespan and three related factors (body size,...

Despite serious health and longevity problems, small brachycephalic breeds are becoming increasingly popular among pet owners. Motivations for choosing short-nosed breeds have been extensively investigated in recent years; however, this issue has been addressed mainly by relying on owner reports, resulting in explanations of “cute looks”, referring...

Domestication is a well-known example of the relaxation of environmentally-based cognitive selection that leads to reductions in brain size. However, little is known about how brain size evolves after domestication and whether subsequent directional/artificial selection can compensate for domestication effects. The first animal to be domesticated w...

Compared to the field of human fMRI, knowledge about functional networks in dogs is scarce. In this paper, we present the first anatomically-defined ROI (region of interest) based functional network map of the companion dog brain. We scanned 33 awake dogs in a “task-free condition”. Our trained subjects, similarly to humans, remain willingly motion...

Objectives: Many UK dogs live into old age, but owners may not recognise or report age-associated signs of disease which lead to negative welfare. This study investigated dog owner and veterinary professional experiences and attitudes towards ageing in dogs, how health care is offered, barriers to its delivery, and some best-practice solutions. M...

Rodents serve as an important model for examining both individual and collective behavior. Dominance within rodent social structures can determine access to critical resources, such as food and mating opportunities. Yet, many aspects of the intricate interplay between individual behaviors and the resulting group social hierarchy, especially its evo...

Brachycephalic, or “flat-faced” dogs are popular despite the health problems they often face. We assumed that individuals who like these dogs have lower knowledge about the associated health problems and a specific personality profile and highly value the tendency of these dogs to form eye contact with humans. We conducted an online survey with 1,1...

Despite the serious problems with their general health and longevity, small brachycephalic breeds, especially the French bulldog, are becoming increasingly popular among pet owners. The motivations for the choice of short-nosed breeds have been extensively investigated in recent years; however, this issue has been addressed mainly by relying on own...

The complex human environment results in a hard-to-bridge gap between human and animal studies on general cognitive abilities ( g ; colloquially often referred to as “intelligence”). Pet dogs are adapted to our environment, but a convincing demonstration of g is missing. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on seven tasks revealed a hierarc...

Domestication dramatically changes behaviour, including communication, as seen in the case of dogs (Canis familiaris) and wolves (Canis lupus). We tested the hypothesis that domestication may affect an ancient, shared communication form of canids, the howling which seems to have higher individual variation in dogs: the perception and usage of howls...

Ageing is driven by the progressive, lifelong accumulation of cellular damage. Autophagy (cellular self-eating) functions as a major cell clearance mechanism to degrade such damages, and its capacity declines with age. Despite its physiological and medical significance, it remains largely unknown why autophagy becomes incapable of effectively elimi...

The prolonged lifespan of companion dogs has resulted in increased behavioural and physical challenges linked to old age. The development of behavioural tests to identify and monitor age‑related differences has begun. However, standardised testing requires validation. The present study aimed to assess external validity, interobserver reliability, a...

Understanding how active and healthy ageing can be achieved is one of the most relevant global problems. In this review, I use the “Four questions” framework of Tinbergen to investigate how ageing works, how it might contribute to the survival of species, how it develops during the lifetime of (human) individuals and how it evolved. The focus of ag...

Background Aging is the most significant risk factor in many diseases and for mortality alike, and it is known to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Due to dogs’ importance in human societies, the study of aging in companion dogs is worthwhile in its own right. Still, dogs could also be ideal translational model animals for hu...

The domestication of dogs from their shared ancestors with wolves occurred around 25,000 years ago and affected many characteristics of the species, including its appearance and behavior. Comparative RNA sequencing experiments can help shed light on the delicate details of gene expression regulation responsible for the variance in complex traits be...

Dogs may possess a unique translational potential to investigate neural aging and dementia because they are prone to age-related cognitive decline, including an Alzheimer’s disease–like pathological condition. Yet very little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying canine cognitive decline. The goal of the current study was to explore th...

The prolonged lifespan of companion dogs has resulted in an increased occurrence of behavioural and physical challenges linked to old age. The development of behavioural tests for identifying and monitoring age-related differences has begun. However, standardised testing requires validation. The present study aimed to assess external validity, inte...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a significant burden for human health that is increasing in prevalence as the global population ages. There is growing recognition that current preclinical models of AD are insufficient to recapitulate key aspects of the disease. Laboratory models for AD include mice, which do not naturally develop AD-like pathology duri...

Separation related problems (SRP) caused by distress associated with separation from the preferred member of the social group, can be characterised by their symptoms e.g., excessive vocalisation. In dogs’ separation whines, nonlinear phenomena (NLP) (abrupt changes in the resonance of the vocal folds) might occur, which could be adaptive in communi...

Aging is driven by the progressive, lifelong accumulation of cellular damage. Autophagy (cellular self-eating) functions as a major cell clearance mechanism to degrade such damages, and its capacity declines with age. Despite its physiological and medical significance, it remains largely unknown why autophagy becomes incapable of effectively elimin...

Biobanking refers to the systematic collection , storage, and distribution of pre-or post-mortem biological samples derived from volunteer donors. The demand for high-quality human specimens is clearly demonstrated by the number of newly emerging biobanking facilities and large international collabora-tive networks. Several animal species are relev...

Forming eye contact is important in dog–human communication. In this study we measured what factors affect dogs’ propensity for forming eye contact with an experimenter. We investigated the effect of [1] cephalic index (head shape’s metric, indicator of higher visual acuity at the centre of the visual field), [2] breed function (visual cooperativen...

Describing evolutionary conserved physiological or molecular patterns, which can reliably mark the age of both model organisms and humans or predict the onset of age-related pathologies has become a priority in aging research. The age-related gene-expression changes of the Cyclin Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) gene have been well-documented...

Research on the genetics of domestication most often focuses on the protein-coding exons. However, exons cover only a minor part (1-2%) of the canine genome, whereas functional mutations may be located also in regions beyond the exome, in regulatory regions. Therefore, a large proportion of phenotypical differences between dogs and wolves may remai...

During social interactions, acoustic parameters of tetrapods’ vocalisations reflect the emotional state of the caller. Higher levels of spectral noise and the occurrence of irregularities (non-linear phenomena NLP) might be negative arousal indicators in alarm calls, although less is known about other distress vocalisations. Family dogs experience...

Sleep spindles are phasic events observed in mammalian non-rapid eye movement sleep. They are relevant today in the study of memory consolidation, sleep quality, mental health and ageing. We argue that our advanced understanding of their mechanisms has not exhausted the utility and need for animal model work. This is both because some topics, like...

Although a positive link between sleep spindle occurrence and measures of post-sleep recall (learning success) is often reported for humans and replicated across species, the test-retest reliability of the effect is sometimes questioned. The largest to date study could not confirm the association, however methods for automatic spindle detection div...

The privately owned companion dog is an increasingly important model in aging research because it shares the human environment, is exposed to similar environmental risk factors, receives comparable medical care, and develops many of the same age-related pathologies. One such pathology is Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD), which shares many of the...

Inspired by work on infants, we investigated whether dogs’ behaviors are guided by human displays of preference, contrasting with the animals’ own choices. In a rewarded fetching task, dogs override their own interest toward “disgusting” objects and retrieve what the owner prefers. However, in previous research, both objects were inherently neutral...

In humans, age-related changes in personality occur in a non-random fashion with respect to their direction, timing, and magnitude. In dogs, there are still gaps in our knowledge about the detailed dynamics of age-related personality changes. We analysed the personality of 217 Border collies aged from 0.5 to 15 years both cross-sectionally and long...

Computed tomography (CT) is one of the most useful techniques for digitizing bone structures and making endocranial models from the neurocranium. The resulting digital endocasts reflect the morphology of the brain and the associated structures. Our first aim was to document the methodology behind creating detailed digital endocasts of canine skulls...

Human-directed play behaviour is a distinct behavioural feature of domestic dogs. But the role that artificial selection for contemporary dog breeds has played for human-directed play behaviour remains elusive. Here, we investigate how human-directed play behaviour has evolved in relation to the selection for different functions, considering proces...

Locating unpredictable but essential resources is a task that all mobile animals have to perform in order to survive and reproduce. Research on search strategies has focused largely on independent individuals [1, 2, 3], but many organisms display collective behaviors, including during group search and foraging [4, 5, 6]. One classical experimental...

Dogs live in 45% of households, integrated into various human groups in various societies. This is certainly not true for wolves. We suggest that dogs' increased tractability (meant as individual dogs being easier to control, handle and direct by humans, in contrast to trainability defined as performance increase due to training) makes a crucial co...

Background: Recent studies suggest that clinically sound ventriculomegaly in dogs could be a preliminary form of the clinically significant hydrocephalus. We evaluated changes of ventricular volumes in awake functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) trained dogs with indirectly assessed cognitive abilities over time (thus avoiding the use of an...

Gut microbiota can crucially influence behavior and neurodevelopment. Dogs show unique similarities to humans in their physiology and may naturally develop dementia-like cognitive decline. We assessed 29 pet dogs’ cognitive performance in a memory test and analyzed the bacterial 16S rRNA gene from fecal samples collected right after the behavioral...

Human brains process lexical meaning separately from emotional prosody of speech at higher levels of the processing hierarchy. Recently we demonstrated that dog brains can also dissociate lexical and emotional prosodic information in human spoken words. To better understand the neural dynamics of lexical processing in the dog brain, here we used an...

Over the last few years, several efforts have been undertaken to characterize the aging process in dogs. In the present study, we evaluate a short protocol measuring dogs’ cognitive, social, and physical capacities. Our aim was to develop a feasible test battery, with minimal pre-training requirements, no complex devices, and which is set outdoors...

Background: Although the molecular function of wolframin remains unclear, the lack of this protein is known to cause stress in the endoplasmic reticulum. Some variants in the Wolfram Syndrome 1 gene (WFS1) were associated with various neuropsychiatric disorders in humans, such as aggressiveness, impulsivity and anxiety. Results: Here we present...