Facial Asymmetry in Dogs with Fear and Aggressive Behaviors Towards Humans

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2022 Nov 15

PMID 36380072

Authors

Marcello Siniscalchi

Serenella dIngeo

Michele Minunno

Angelo Quaranta

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

There is now scientific evidence that, in dogs, distinctive facial actions are produced in response to different emotionally-arousing stimuli suggesting a relationship between lateralized facial expressions and emotional states. Although in humans, relationships between facial asymmetry and both emotional and physiological distress have been reported, there are currently no data on the laterality of dogs' facial expressions in response to social stimuli with respect to canine behavioral disorders. The aim of the present work was to investigate the facial asymmetries of dogs with fear and aggressive behavior towards humans during two different emotional situations: (1) while the dogs were alone in the presence of their owners and (2) during the approach of an unfamiliar human being. Overall, our results demonstrated high levels of asymmetries in facial expressions of dogs displaying fear and aggressive behaviors towards humans indicating that measuring facial asymmetries in dogs could prove to be a useful non-invasive tool for investigating physiology-based behavioral disorders.

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