Domestic dogs as a comparative model for social neuroscience: Advances and challenges.

Dogs and humans have lived together for thousands of years and share many analogous socio-cognitive skills. Dog neuroimaging now provides insight into the neural bases of these shared social abilities. Here, we summarize key findings from dog fMRI identifying neocortical brain areas implicated in visual social cognition, such as face, body, and emotion perception, as well as action observation in dogs.

Functional mapping of the somatosensory cortex using noninvasive fMRI and touch in awake dogs.

Dogs are increasingly used as a model for neuroscience due to their ability to undergo functional MRI fully awake and unrestrained, after extensive behavioral training. Still, we know rather little about dogs' basic functional neuroanatomy, including how basic perceptual and motor functions are localized in their brains. This is a major shortcoming in interpreting activations obtained in dog fMRI.

Functionally analogous body- and animacy-responsive areas are present in the dog (Canis familiaris) and human occipito-temporal lobe.

Comparing the neural correlates of socio-cognitive skills across species provides insights into the evolution of the social brain and has revealed face- and body-sensitive regions in the primate temporal lobe. Although from a different lineage, dogs share convergent visuo-cognitive skills with humans and a temporal lobe which evolved independently in carnivorans. We investigated the neural correlates of face and body perception in dogs (N = 15) and humans (N = 40) using functional MRI.

Validation of a New Coil Array Tailored for Dog Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.

Comparative neuroimaging allows for the identification of similarities and differences between species. It provides an important and promising avenue, to answer questions about the evolutionary origins of the brain´s organization, in terms of both structure and function. Dog functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has recently become one particularly promising and increasingly used approach to study brain function and coevolution.

Socio-cognitive training impacts emotional and perceptual self-salience but not self-other distinction.

Training to inhibit imitative tendencies has been shown to reduce self-other interferences in both automatic imitation and perspective taking, suggesting that an enhancement of self-other distinction is transferrable from the motor to the cognitive domain. This study examined whether socio-cognitive training specifically enhances self-other distinction, or rather modulates self-salience, that is, the relative attentional priority of information pertaining to the self-perspective over information pertaining to the other person's perspective. Across two experiments, participants trained on one day to either imitate, inhibit imitation, inhibit control stimuli, or they were imitated.

Exploring the dog-human relationship by combining fMRI, eye-tracking and behavioural measures.

Behavioural studies revealed that the dog-human relationship resembles the human mother-child bond, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report the results of a multi-method approach combining fMRI (N = 17), eye-tracking (N = 15), and behavioural preference tests (N = 24) to explore the engagement of an attachment-like system in dogs seeing human faces. We presented morph videos of the caregiver, a familiar person, and a stranger showing either happy or angry facial expressions.

Tailored haemodynamic response function increases detection power of fMRI in awake dogs (Canis familiaris).

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of awake and unrestrained dogs (Canis familiaris) has been established as a novel opportunity for comparative neuroimaging, promising important insights into the evolutionary roots of human brain function and cognition. However, data processing and analysis pipelines are often derivatives of methodological standards developed for human neuroimaging, which may be problematic due to profound neurophysiological and anatomical differences between humans and dogs. Here, we explore whether dog fMRI studies would benefit from a tailored dog haemodynamic response function (HRF).

Does Really One in Ten Believe Capital Punishment Exists in a Contemporary European Community Country? An Endorsed, Prereviewed, Preregistered Replication Study and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Till et al. (2016) reported that in an Austrian sample approximately one in ten respondents incorrectly believed that Austria still practices, or recently practiced, the death penalty, and that there is a positive association between the amount of weekly television viewing and this gross misperception of the Austrian justice system.

Methods: An endorsed, prereviewed, preregistered close ( = 597) served to test the veracity of these reported effects.

Training pet dogs for eye-tracking and awake fMRI.

In recent years, two well-developed methods of studying mental processes in humans have been successively applied to dogs. First, eye-tracking has been used to study visual cognition without distraction in unrestrained dogs. Second, noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used for assessing the brain functions of dogs in vivo.

The multiple facets of empathy.

We discuss the definition of empathy provided by Kujala (2017) and argue that research in this field, in assigning the cognitive component of empathy only a secondary role, misses crucial information. Further knowledge about dogs' ability for higher cognitive processes helps (a) in interpreting results such as potential prosocial behavior in dogs and (b) sheds light on the question of whether abilities like perspective-taking and self-other distinction are uniquely human.