Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Canine Cognition and Face Processing


The study of face processing is huge in the worlds of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. Conclusively evidence stands that there are special areas and mechanisms for face processing in both human and primate species. This evidence is the result from various studies exploring the neural differences between looking at objects versus looking at faces, looking at faces upside-down versus right-side up, and looking at different features of faces.

One study that explores whether or not face processing is innate or learned is Sugita’s 2008 study. Here monkeys were reared either in an environment in which faces were present or an environment in which faces were not present. The monkeys were then tested to see whether or not they preferred faces versus objects and monkey faces versus human faces. Results showed that without any exposure to any faces at all, monkeys showed a preference to faces over objects but did not prefer monkey faces to human faces, this preference was the same. These results showed that monkeys do in fact have an innate mechanism to process human and monkey faces.

A most recent study explores this same question of innate face processing in dogs. Gregory Burns, a neuroscientist at Emory University, is heading the Dog Project and researching evolutionary questions of man’s best friend. Burns’ project is the first to train dogs to sit still in an fMRI machine without restraint or sedation, a pretty impressive feat. Within the fMRI machine the dogs looked at video images on a screen of faces (both human and dog) and objects.

Results showed increased activity in the canines’ temporal lobe when looking at videos of both human and dog faces. As Burns states, “If the dogs’ responses to faces was learned — by associating a human face with food, for example — you would expect to see a response in the reward system of their brains, but that was not the case.” In humans, our face processing area is known to neuroscientists as the FFA, or fusiform face area. Burns and colleagues at Emory University have called the region in temporal lobe for dogs the dog face area, or DFA.

Why dogs? Humans have had the longest animal interaction with dogs, they are incredibly social with us, and hey it’s cool to know how our pet’s brains work, right? This kind of study is also important for understanding social animals in general, including ourselves. There are many canine cognition labs across the United States exploring many more aspects of dogs’ cognitive behavior including Duke University, Yale, The University of Florida, and many others.


Eli

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