Your dog’s (brain) reward center

Professor Gregory Berns of Emory University is at it again. He’s expanded on his earlier research using functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to show the brain activity in dogs.

“Now we’ve shown that the initial study wasn’t a fluke: Canine fMRI is reliable and can be done with minimal stress to the dogs. We have laid the foundation for exploring the neural biology and cognitive processes of man’s best, and oldest, friend.” said Professor Berns.

Tigger, a Boston Terrier, was one of the 13 study subjects

The task requires dogs to cooperatively enter the small enclosure of the fMRI scanner and remain completely motionless despite the noise and vibration of the machine. Only those dogs that willingly cooperated were involved in the experiments.

The canine subjects were given harmless fMRI brain scans while they watched a human giving hand signals that the dogs had been trained to understand. One signal indicated that the dog would receive a hot dog for a treat. The other hand signal meant that the dog would not receive a hot dog.

Most of the dogs showed a response in the caudate region of the brain when seeing the hand signal for a treat. This area of the brain has the highest concentration of dopamine receptors, which are implicated in motivation and pleasure, among other neurological processes.

“Our goal is to map out canine cognitive processes” said Berns. The research team needs to increase the number of canine subjects that can be trained to stay within the MRI machine so it can validate its research.

See my other blogs about functional MRI and Professor Gregory Berns:

Source: Emory University media release