title: Relationship between visuospatial attention and paw preference in dogs.
abstract: The relationship between visuospatial attention and paw preference was investigated in domestic dogs. Visuospatial attention was evaluated using a food detection task that closely matches the so-called "cancellation" task used in human studies. Paw preference was estimated by quantifying the dog's use of forepaws to hold a puzzle feeder device (namely the "Kong") while eating its content. Results clearly revealed a strong relationship between visuospatial attention bias and motor laterality, with a left-visuospatial bias in the left-pawed group, a right-visuospatial bias in the right-pawed group and with the absence of significant visuospatial attention bias in ambi-pawed subjects. The current findings are the first evidence for the presence of a relationship between motor lateralization and visuospatial attentional mechanisms in a mammal species besides humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Section of Behavioral Sciences and Animal Bioethics,University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy.
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siniscalchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Section of Behavioral Sciences and Animal Bioethics,University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy.
authors.forename: Serenella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: d'Ingeo
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Section of Behavioral Sciences and Animal Bioethics,University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fornelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, Section of Behavioral Sciences and Animal Bioethics,University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quaranta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D005552:Forelimb / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*