Ch. 9 – Advancing the Social Neuroscience of Human-Animal Interaction: The Role of Salivary Bioscience

Author: Dreschel and Granger (2016), The Social Neuroscience of Human–Animal Interaction

There have been recent calls to increase the number of sound scientific studies, including the integration of valid and repeatable biobehavioral measures of both short- and long-term effects. Technical innovations in the field of salivary bioscience reveal that information may be obtained from oral fluid specimens about the activity of a broad array of physiological systems, pathogen and chemical exposures, and genetic variability relevant to basic biological function, health, and disease. The attention saliva has received as a research biospecimen is largely due to the perceptions of sample collection as quick, uncomplicated, cost-efficient, minimally invasive, and acceptable to children and parents, as well as to animals and their handlers. The purpose of this chapter is to describe best practices and provide a road map to enable investigators interested in the social neuroscience of HAI to integrate the tools of salivary bioscience into their conceptual and measurement models. Some of the topics covered in this chapter include: theoretical and conceptual issues; human and animal salivary bioscience; and analytes in saliva of interest to research on HAI. As the number of substances that can be reliably measured increases, oral fluid may become a biospecimen of choice for HAI studies. Salivary bioscience has the potential to profoundly impact our understanding of the social neuroscience of HAI.

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Keywords: Human-Animal Interaction, HAI, Salivary Biomarkers