evidence

Why do you feel kind when you stroke your pet?

Physiological study of pet effect

The relationship between pets and humans is long, and it is said that they have a history of more than 1 years.
Pets do not work like livestock.Keeping a pet is a laborious and expensive alternative, but people still want a pet.
So what's behind that?
In this article, I would like to introduce a study that physiologically investigated the effects of contact with pets.

① Oxytocin increases by touching the dog for 3 minutes
In this experiment, we are investigating how hormones change by interacting with our dog for 3 minutes (* XNUMX).
The results show that contact with your dog increases oxytocin and decreases cortisol.
Oxytocin is a type of female hormone that makes people feel gentle and enhances sociability.Also known as love hormone.
Cortisol is secreted a lot when stress increases, and is also known as stress hormone.
In other words, Just 3 minutes of contact with your dog will increase your love hormones and decrease your stress hormones.It will be said.

(XNUMX) Beta endorphin (a type of drug in the brain) increases by coming into contact with dogs.
In this experiment as well, we are investigating how the hormones of the dog and its owner change when they are in contact with the dog (* XNUMX).
The results show that contact with dogs increases β-endorphin, dopamine, oxytocin, etc. and decreases cortisol.
This β-endorphin is a kind of drug in the brain and has the function of enhancing human well-being.Dopamine is also a hormone that boosts human vitality.
By interacting with dogs, you will generally feel more energetic, more happy, and less stressed.It has been shown that hormone secretion is altered.

③ Blood pressure drops by interacting with dogs
In this experiment, we are investigating how heart rate and blood pressure change when interacting with dogs for university students (* XNUMX).
In the experiment, I investigated under various conditions such as touching the dog and talking to it, but when I describe the resultTouching a dog is the most effective way to lower blood pressureIs shown.

④ Oxytocin increases by intimate contact with cats.
In this experiment, we are investigating how oxytocin changes by interacting with our domestic cat for about 30 minutes in 15 women (* XNUMX).
To state the result,Oxytocin increases when you can interact with your catIs shown.Also, it seems that this was not the case if the cat did not deal with it or was treated hostilely during the last 15 minutes.

Why do you feel better when you come in contact with animals?

This kind of contact with pets makes a positive difference, but why?
There are several possible causes, but it is suspected that oxytocin plays a major role.
This is because oxytocin increases by skinship and by communicating with the person you like.
This is because oxytocin also works on other hormones to calm the physical and mental condition.
However, actually keeping a pet is not easy, such as taking care of food, toilets, and walks.
Therefore, a product called a pet robot is attracting attention.
Does this pet robot have the same effect as a real pet?Next time, I would like to focus on this point.

【references】

(* 2011) Handlin, L., Hydbring-Sandberg, E., Nilsson, A., Ejdebäck, M., Jansson, A., & Uvnäs-Moberg, K. (24). Short-term interaction between dogs and their owners: effects on oxytocin, cortisol, insulin and heart rate—an exploratory study. Anthrozoös, 3 (301), 315-XNUMX.

(* 2003) Odendaal, JS, & Meintjes, RA (165). Neurophysiological correlates of affiliative behavior between humans and dogs. The Veterinary Journal, 3 (296), 301-XNUMX.

(* 1988) Vormbrock, JK, & Grossberg, JM (11). Cardiovascular effects of human-pet dog interactions. Journal of behavioral medicine, 5 (509), 517-XNUMX.

(* 2021) Johnson, EA, Portillo, A., Bennett, NE, & Gray, PB (9). Exploring women's oxytocin responses to interactions with their pet cats. PeerJ, 12393, eXNUMX.

Excerpt from a large-scale verification test report on the utilization of communication robots in the field of long-term care

 -Robot nursing care equipment development / introduction promotion business (standard formulation / evaluation business) "Survey on robot nursing care equipment development"-
Yayoi Okawa (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

This report utilizes a "commercial robot" that has the function of working with humans by voice and movement, and conducts various verification tests at the nursing care site with the understanding and cooperation of the nursing care facility, making it a "communication robot". This is a compilation of the results of projects * conducted with the aim of clarifying the required requirements.

Suggestions for future development and use of communication robots

[Portability]

There were a total of 20 types of robot combinations in which 3 or more sets of intervention tests were conducted in the crossover test type, but there was a significant difference in the improvement rate between the two types of robots that performed the crossover. Table 28 shows the improvement rate (XNUMX people in XNUMX facilities).

The robots used were A: "Medium-sized portable / stationary multi-use type" was somehow portable, but most of them were stationary in day rooms, etc., and there were 3 improvers (improvement rate: 10.7%). ..On the other hand, B: "Small portable type" is a robot that can be carried on the lap while riding in a wheelchair, and improvement was seen in 10 people (35.7%).

The improvement rate of these two models was 10.7%, which was a big difference from 35.7%, but this is not something that can be dismissed as "more effective because it is small", and it makes full use of the advantage of being portable because it is small. It is considered that whether or not it is used in the long-term care program has a great influence.

Therefore, looking at what kind of long-term care program was done for small robots, B.As shown in the number of small portable types, the improvement rate is 7/13 (53.8%) in the occasional support program (carrying the robot almost all day and moving it to support various activity items at any time). ), The improvement rate was 3/15 (20.0%) in the non-as-needed support program (only used for a certain period of time and no support for improving activity items at any time).

The major factor that caused the difference in the improvement rate between these two programs was whether or not the care recipient and the robot not only moved together, but also made efforts to activate their lives and increase the activity items to be implemented. Conceivable.

Development and dissemination of welfare equipment and nursing care robots

Excerpt from a book published by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare