著者
Ayaka TAKIMOTO Yusuke HORI Kazuo FUJITA
出版者
プシコロギア会
雑誌
PSYCHOLOGIA (ISSN:00332852)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.59, no.2-3, pp.100-111, 2016 (Released:2017-09-21)
参考文献数
50
被引用文献数
11

We tested whether horses (Equus caballus) are sensitive to human attentional states and modify the modality of begging behaviors as a function of human attentional states in a naturalistic food-requesting situation. In Experiment 1, horses tended to produce more auditory or tactile begging behaviors when the human experimenter (E1)’s eyes were covered by her hand than when they were not covered. However, there was no difference in visual begging behaviors between conditions. In Experiment 2, horses produced significantly more auditory or tactile begging behaviors when E1’s eyes were closed than when they were open. In contrast, horses produced significantly more visual begging behaviors when E1’s eyes were open than when they were closed. These results suggest that horses understand the role of eyes as an indicator of human attentional states and show effective and flexible begging behaviors proactively as a function of human attentional states.
著者
Yusuke HORI Takatoshi OZAKI Yoshimitsu YAMADA Teruaki TOZAKI Heui-Soo KIM Ayaka TAKIMOTO Maiko ENDO Noboru MANABE Miho INOUE-MURAYAMA Kazuo FUJITA
出版者
日本ウマ科学会
雑誌
Journal of Equine Science (ISSN:13403516)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.24, no.3, pp.31-36, 2013 (Released:2013-09-30)
参考文献数
15
被引用文献数
2 12

Genetic polymorphisms in genes related to neurotransmitters or hormones affect personality or behavioral traits in many animal species including humans. In domestic animals, the allele frequency of such genes has been reported to be different among breeds and it may account for breed differences in behavior. In this study, we investigated breed differences in horses in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4), which has been reported to affect horse personality. We collected samples from seven horse breeds including those native to Japan and Korea, and compared the sequence of the DRD4 exon3 region among these breeds. We found that there were two types of polymorphisms (VNTR and SNPs) in the exon3 region, and some of them seemed to be breed-specific. In addition, we found that the allele frequency of G292A, reported to be associated with horse personality, differed greatly between native Japanese horses and Thoroughbred horses. The frequency of the A allele which is associated with low curiosity and high vigilance, was much lower in native Japanese horses (Hokkaido, 0.03; Taishu, 0.08) than in Thoroughbreds (0.62). This difference may account for breed differences in personality or behavioral traits. Further studies of the function of these polymorphisms and their effect on behavior are indicated.