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GENERAL COMMENTARYpublished: 30 November 2015doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01845Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 November 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1845Edited by:Jennifer Vonk,Oakland University, USAReviewed by:Kurt Kotrschal,University of Vienna, AustriaSandra Troxell-Smith,University of Illinois at Chicago, USA*Correspondence:Sylvain Fisetsylvain.fiset@umoncton.caSpecialty section:This article was submitted toComparative Psychology,a section of the journalFrontiers in PsychologyReceived: 28 October 2015Accepted: 13 November 2015Published: 30 November 2015Citation:Fiset S and Plourde V (2015)Commentary: Oxytocin-Gaze PositiveLoop and the Coevolution ofHuman-Dog Bonds.Front. Psychol. 6:1845.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01845Commentary: Oxytocin-Gaze PositiveLoop and the Coevolution ofHuman-Dog BondsSylvain Fiset 1 * and Vickie Plourde 21 Secteur des Sciences Humaines, Université de Moncton, Edmundston, NB, Canada, 2 École de Psychologie, UniversitéLaval, Quebec City, QC, CanadaKeywords: dogs, wolves, domestication, oxytocin, gazeA commentary onOxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bondsby Nagasawa, M., Mitsui, S., En, S., Ohtani, N., Ohta, M., Sakuma, Y., et al. (2015). Science 348,333–336. doi: 10.1126/science.1261022Inrecentyears,ithasbeenbroughtforththatdog-humanrelationshipsshareseveralcharacteristicswith the maternal bond that unites a child with their principal caregiver (Serpell, 2003) andthat mutual gazing—sustained eye contact between two individuals (Rogers, 2013)—could be oneparticular way in which we express our affection or love with our dogs (Nagasawa et al., 2009).Although affection has already been the subject of many animal studies (e.g., see Harry Harlow’slifelong work with rhesus macaques by Blum, 2002), the possibility that members of two unrelatedspecies could communicate their affection simply by looking at each other is an emerging andfascinating topic for comparative researchers (MacLean and Hare, 2015). Recently, Nagasawa et al.(2015) supported this hypothesis by revealing that oxytocin, a neuropeptide that regulates manyforms of social behavior, including bonding and affiliation (Churchland and Winkielman, 2012),is largely involved in the physiological mechanisms underlying mutual gazing between dogs andhumans.In an elegant first experiment in which domestic dogs and tamed wolves were reunited for30min with their owners, Nagasawa et al. (2015) found that gazing behaviors from dogs, butnot from wolves, increased oxytocin concentrations in owners, which in turn increased oxytocinconcentrations in dogs. In addition, the increase in oxytocin in dogs and their owners correlatedwith the duration of dog-to-owner mutual gazing: Dogs and owners who exchanged long gazeshad an increase in oxytocin, whereas oxytocin concentrations remained stable in dogs and ownersthat shared shorter gazes. By examining the age of acquisition of the dogs by the owners andother variables, such as the degree of socialization, the authors discarded the possible impactof an early-life experience with humans to explain these differences between dogs and wolves.Based on the results of this first experiment, Nagasawa et al. (2015) concluded that oxytocin hasfacilitated and modulated human-dog bonding through gazing behavior and that this particularoxytocin/mutual-gaze feedback loop possibly evolved during dog domestication. Although weencourage and applaud the efforts deployed by Nagasawa et al. (2015) to pinpoint the originsof mutual gazing between dogs and humans, we want to address a few questions regarding thisparticular experiment and the conclusions drawn by the authors.Firstly, bonding in humans undeniably has roots in the relationship between a child and theirprimary caregiver, which is usually their mother (Feldman, 2012). In Nagasawa et al. (2015)’sstudy, however, the dogs’ principal figure of attachment were their owners. Although dog-owner