Dogs on the Brain

My good friend just adopted a puppy, and with all the pictures coming my way, I have dogs on the brain. Evidently, so do researchers. Two studies were recently recounted on ScienceDaily about the brains and behaviors of our canine friends.

Christy L. Hoffman, the lead of the first study, noted that “when dogs are waiting for adoption at a shelter, a common question is ‘what is the dog like with cats[?]’”—unfortunately, there is not standardized assessment to determine the answer to that question, so that’s what Hoffman set out to do.

As pointed out in the ScienceDaily article, there are standardized assessments to assess dogs’ behaviors around humans and other dogs. One such test, Sue Sternberg’s Assess-a-Pet test is said to be quite commonly used in shelters. While the benefits of such tests are debated, Hoffman sought to add another realm to the evaluations.

The research team examined the responses of 69 pet dogs to different stimuli: a realistic cat doll, recordings of cat sounds, and the smell of cat urine. Researchers predicted that the dogs would react most strongly to the cat doll, but it actually showed little correlation to a dog’s known history with cats. The same was found for cat urine. Only the dogs’ reaction to cat sounds showed a relationship to their previously recorded behavior. As I’ve watched my cat react to the sound of another cat’s meow played from my google home (hilarious by the way), it doesn’t surprise me that it sparked a reaction in dogs.

Researchers say the results suggest that “dogs are relying more heavily” on hearing, and that it was “surprising since most behavioral assessments focus on dogs’ responses to visual stimuli”—perhaps suggesting a flaw in traditional evaluations of behavior.

The second study takes predicting behavior even further as the Emory University researchers sought to hone in on which dogs would be successful in a rigorous service training program. The researchers utilized data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate brain scans of “canine candidates to assist people with disabilities.”

These dogs had already undergone “a battery” of traditional behavior tests when they went for their brain scans, in addition to having been taught to remain still while undergoing the fMRI. Gregory Berns, who led the research, explained “the brain scans may be like taking a dog’s mental temperature.”

The researchers found heightened neural activity in the amygdala of some dogs, which was considered “an abnormal value for a successful service dog.” This test allowed the researchers to boost “the ability to identify dogs that would ultimately fail to 67 percent, up from about 477 percent without the use of fMRI.”

Researchers also found dogs that demonstrated strong activity in the caudate region of the brain, when responding to a signal they associated with receiving a treat, were slightly more likely to pass the dog training program. Activity in the amygdala correlated to a failure in this test as well.

Berns says they chose those regions of the brain because those two regions seem to distinguish between motivation and nervousness—important since “the ideal service dog is one that is highly motivated, but also doesn’t get excessively excited or nervous.”

With the long waiting lists for service dogs, 70% of animals currently failing out of the program, and the cost of training ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, Berns’ study provides a degree of hope—even if fMRI scans would only be practical for larger dog training organizations.

Perhaps your next dog will have proven herself behaviorally superior—or not, in the case of adopting a failed service dog. In any case, it looks like all dog lovers will now have a bit more insight into the brains of man’s best friend.

Image credit: Gregory Berns, Emory University (via ScienceDaily)