Cross‑Species Dyadic Synchrony: Integrating Autonomic Entrainment and Behavioral Coordination in Human‑Animal Interactions

This integrative review synthesizes empirical evidence on autonomic entrainment and behavioral coordination in human-animal dyads, focusing on dog-human and horse-human interactions. Key findings demonstrate bidirectional HRV coupling (Koskela et al., 2024; Marcelli et al., 2023) alongside locomotor and postural synchrony (Duranton et al., 2017; Keeling et al., 2021) under structured conditions. The paper identifies convergent principles (reciprocity, temporal alignment, context sensitivity) and mechanistic distinctions between physiological (continuous, instrumented) and behavioral (observable, event-based) layers. Non-local synchrony hypotheses remain unsupported; local entrainment mechanisms suffice. Methodological implications emphasize simultaneous multi-modal recording and cross-species standardization for future causal modeling.