Awake fMRI reveals a specialized region in dog temporal cortex for face processing

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Comparative Cognition
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Behavioral studies indicate dogs can visually recognize faces.
• Humans and monkeys exhibit specialized cortical face regions.
• The existence of similar regions in dogs remains uninvestigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if dogs possess specialized cortical face regions.
• To identify neural correlates of face processing in dogs.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used on six dogs.
• Dogs were trained for motionless scanning without sedation or restraint.
• Stimuli included movies and images of human faces, dog faces, and objects.

Main Results:

• A region in the canine temporal lobe showed significantly higher response to human faces than objects.
• This region exhibited selectivity for both human and dog faces over objects.
• Face selectivity was not observed in the primary visual cortex of dogs.

Conclusions:

• This study provides the first evidence of a face-selective region in the canine temporal cortex.
• Neural mechanisms for face processing are not exclusive to primates.
• Findings may explain dogs' heightened sensitivity to human social cues.