{
  "abstract": "Introduction: Canine-assisted psychotherapy (CAP) introduces a therapy dog into the therapist-patient relationship and may influence interpersonal processes underlying therapeutic change. This exploratory pilot study investigated whether direct patient-dog contact is associated with changes in autonomic arousal and therapist-patient physiological synchrony. Methods: Skin conductance was recorded from 18 patients with depressive disorders and one therapist during 53 routine CAP sessions. A total of 192 episodes of direct patient-dog contact were identified from video recordings. Three-minute periods before and after each contact onsets were compared. Skin conductance level (SCL), skin conductance fluctuations (SCF), and therapist-patient physiological synchrony were assessed using zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses examined temporal changes in synchrony, while randomly selected pseudo-events served as controls. Results: SCL increased significantly following dog contact in both patients and the therapist, whereas SCF rate over 3 min did not change significantly. Therapist-patient physiological synchrony increased significantly after dog contact, as indicated by both zero-lag correlation and maximum cross-correlation. Sliding-window analyses confirmed these increases and showed a reduction in the temporal lag between the two physiological signals. Importantly, increases in synchrony were significantly greater following genuine dog-contact events than following pseudo-events. Discussion: Direct physical contact between patients and therapy dogs is followed by increased autonomic arousal and enhanced therapist-patient physiological synchrony. These findings suggest that dog-patient contact may function as an interactional event that promotes physiological coordination and interpersonal attunement within the therapeutic dyad.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Universitatsklinikum Jena"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "S. Suttkus"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Schumann"
    },
    {
      "name": "Y. Gupta"
    },
    {
      "name": "F. de la Cruz"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Geisler"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. Rieger"
    },
    {
      "name": "S. Schulz"
    },
    {
      "name": "G. Ganser"
    },
    {
      "name": "K.-J. Bär"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c60tj2k4fw0xa.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.06.756999",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1.full",
  "id": "c60tj2k4fw0xa",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "physiology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1311|Human-Animal Interaction Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7221824469",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-06",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c60tj2k4fw0xa.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:27:39Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.06.756999",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.756999v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "biorxiv:physiology",
      "subfield": "physiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Increases in therapist-patient physiological synchrony after dog-patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study",
  "title_text": "Increases in therapist-patient physiological synchrony after dog-patient contact in canine-assisted psychotherapy: an exploratory pilot study",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:27:39Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c60tj2k4fw0xa",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}