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Abstract
Objective. Previous studies have shown the possibility that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is useful for promoting the recovery of a patient's psychological, social, and physiological aspect. As a pilot study, we measured the effect that AAT had on cerebral activity using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and examined whether or not NIRS be used to evaluate the effect of AAT biologically and objectively. Methods. Two patients with mood [affective] disorders and a healthy subject participated in this study. We performed two AAT and the verbal fluency task (VFT). Results. The NIRS signal during AAT showed great [oxy-Hb] increases in most of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the two patients. When the NIRS pattern during AAT was compared with that during VFT, greater or lesser differences were observed between them in all subjects. Conclusion. The present study suggested that AAT possibly causes biological and physiological changes in the PFC, and that AAT is useful for inducing the activity of the PFC in patients with depression who have generally been said to exhibit low cerebral activity in the PFC. In addition, the possibility was also suggested that the effect of AAT can be evaluated using NIRS physiologically and objectively.
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by The Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, Grant-in-Aid for Matching Fund Subsidy for Private Universities. The authors thank Dr Masao Inoue (Shimadzu Corporation) for lending us the NIRS instrument, and the staff of the Japanese Animal Hospital Association (JAHA) for their technical assistance with the AAT.
Statement of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest with any commercial or other associations in connection with the submitted article.