Dr. Enikő Kubinyi received her DSc from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Eighty researchers, among them Dr. Enikő Kubinyi, senior research fellow of the Ethology Department, have been awarded DSc title from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. On Tuesday, June 28, 2022, the researchers, who summarized their outstanding scientific achievements in a doctoral thesis and successfully defended a prominent part of their results, received certificate of their prestigious title at the Banquet Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In her academic doctoral dissertation, Enikő Kubinyi examined the aging of family dogs and its effects on the dogs’ behavior, learning ability and memory performance. She explored the ethological and physiological changes of aging in the context of muscle mass, protein synthesis, metabolism, the preservation of the function of the senses and sleep. Using an owner questionnaire, she examined the basic behavioral elements of dogs on a large sample, as well as developed new behavioral tests, by which dogs of different ages and lifestyles can be compared without special training and utilized physiological tests to examine the electrical activity of the brain during sleep. A canine brain and tissue bank has been grounded enabling subsequent molecular biological studies which may be compared with behavioral, physiological, and genetic data. These tests made it possible to examine cognitive abilities of aging dogs, as well as to show the change in personality associated with age. She found that dogs’ cognitive decline, stronger perception of positive emotional content with age, sleep spindles and personality changes during aging to be similar to aging humans, suggesting that dogs may be a good model of human aging, and results may improve quality of life in humans as well as dogs.