József Topál - Biography#

Dr József Topál earned an MSc degree in biology from Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest (1989). He then began working at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös University, first as a PhD student (1989-1992) and later as a research fellow (1993 - 2000). He was a founding member of the Family Dog Research Project (1994), the first research group in the world to study the social cognition in dogs (https://ethology.elte.hu/Family_Dog_Project). Since 2007, he has continued his research at the Institute of Psychology (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) where he founded and has been leading the Comparative Behavioural Research Group.

He earned his PhD in ethology in 2000 and his academic doctorate (DSc) in cognitive psychology in 2014. His scientific interest focuses on examining the ontogeny and evolutionary development of human social-cognitive abilities, using dogs as a model species - a methodological approach now successfully applied worldwide. József Topál and his colleagues were the first to lay the foundations for this new research direction.

Together with his colleagues, he was the first to describe dogs’ attachment behaviour towards humans as a behaviour-regulating mechanism, which can be interpreted through the Bowlby-Ainsworth human attachment model, a cornerstone of child psychology. This discovery has positioned the dog as a crucial model for studying the evolutionary and developmental aspects of attachment. Furthermore, his comparative studies were the first to reveal that certain early anomalies in infants’ object representation abilities are not merely the results of delayed mental maturation; rather they can be understood as specific manifestations of infants’ sensitivity to ostensive referential communication.

His research team also pioneered several methodological innovations including (i) introducing the eye-tracking method to study various aspects of dogs’ social-cognitive processes, (ii) using intranasal administration of oxytocin to investigate the neurochemical basis of social behaviour in dogs and (iii) developing non-invasive sleep EEG techniques for dogs.

Scientometric data of his research activity:n-number of his scientific publications (research papers): 197 (130)t-total citations (independent citations): 8532 (6693)H-Hirsch index: 45c-cumulative impact factor (SCI): 403,02.

To promote the broader societal application of his research, he co-founded the Dogs for Humans Foundation (1996) and has served as its chair (since 2000). This was the first NGO in Central Europe dedicated to advancing the use of dogs in social support roles. As the president of the Assistance Dogs Hungary, an umbrella organization for Hungarian assistance dog training groups, he plays an active role in coordinating the activities of these NGOs to maximize the potential of dogs in enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities. Many of his research findings has successfully applied in the specialized training of various types of assistance dogs.