PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hannah Salomons
AU  - Kyle Smith
AU  - Megan Callahan-Beckel
AU  - Margaret Callahan
AU  - Kerinne Levy
AU  - Brenda S. Kennedy
AU  - Emily Bray
AU  - Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan
AU  - Daniel J. Horschler
AU  - Margaret Gruen
AU  - Jingzhi Tan
AU  - Philip White
AU  - Evan MacLean
AU  - Brian Hare
TI  - Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Dogs
AID  - 10.1101/2021.01.12.425620
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.01.12.425620
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/12/2021.01.12.425620.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/12/2021.01.12.425620.full
AB  - While we know that dogs evolved from wolves through a process of domestication, it remains unclear how this process may have affected dog cognitive development. Here we tested dog (N=44) and wolf (N=37) puppies, 5-18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. Dog puppies were more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully and made more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species were similarly attracted to objects and performed similarly on nonsocial measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results demonstrate the role of domestication in enhancing the cooperative communication skills of dogs through selection on attraction to humans, which altered developmental pathways.One Sentence SummaryDomestication altered dogs’ developmental pathways to enhance their cooperative communication with humans.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.