What fMRI Can Tell Us About the Thoughts and MInds of Dogs
In his 2013 article What fMRI Can Tell Us About the Thoughts and Minds of Dogs, Smithsonian digital reporter, Joseph Stromberg describes the work of neuroscientist, Gregory Berns, who is examining the mental capacity dogs possess to feel human like emotions. Berns is an innovative scientist who examines brain activity of animals, the first to provide scientific proof within an area of study that has only been studied through observation in the past. Since 2011, Dr Berns, has studied brain activity of dogs through fMRI scans in 30 second intervals. Having spent months training approximately 12 dogs to stay still in the machine, he scanned their brain as they were exposed to different types of stimuli. Results proved humans and dogs have more similarities than previously thought, specifically in a part of the brain called the Caudate nucleus. Centered in the basal ganglia the caudate plays roles in learning, feedback processing, excitement, love and anticipation as it is loaded with dopamine receptors. Mainly, it’s job is to processes the “desire to have something that causes pleasure, and the satisfaction of obtaining it.”
The first experiment involved the dogs learning two hand signals that acted as a stimulus for measuring their excitement/disappointment with the message they received from the researcher. One expressed that the dogs would receive a hot dog, the other showed they would not get a treat. Resulting in increased caudate activity for the food signal and limited illumination for no treat.
Receiving expected results in the hot dog experiment, Berns began a second study where the dogs were exposed to four different scents, including scents from familiar people and dogs as well as unknown people/dogs. The results consistently showed a single result, with the caudate lighting up like a Christmas tree for their owners with decreasing illumination in order of known dogs to the unknown scents.
The last experiment explained in the article involved the dogs’ owners being in the room with their dog but then leave from view of the dog spontaneously, resulting in the dimming within the caudate of the dog; however, when ‘their’ person reappeared, the caudate would again act, though this time it resulted in the caudate illuminating quickly and brightly.
While the results of Berns’ research are correct in my opinion, I do not think he is interpreting them in the correct fashion. His inspiration was the passing away of his pug, Newton; he wanted to find out if Newton loved him in the same way he did. He also, wants to gain legal rights for dogs, something I completely agree with, but is also trying to have them be considered “human”. They aren’t human, they don’t think or act like us; they will never be able to eat with a fork, drive a car or pee into a toilet. The worst mistake an animal behavioralist can make, no matter what specific field they are in, is to study animals as humans. While we can use human behavior as a baseline, seeing as that is all we know, studying animals as humans makes the researcher biased.
Society needs to start studying animals AS animals, researchers are too obsessed with trying to find similarities between species that they cannot seem to learn anything about our culture from learning theirs.
I come from an Archaeological background and remember about how dogs helped domesticate humans as much as we domesticated them. The theory is that natural selection made it so the wolves with social personalities survived because they would get closer to our ancestors in order to get scraps of food.
Which in turn led to the wolves having to earn their keep through becoming protectors of their tribes as well as hunting partners for the men, resulting in companionship which led to caring and love from both sides.
They taught us to feel love and loyalty so why can’t they feel the same in their own way. Dogs and humans have evolved together for millenniums and they can tell us a lot about ourselves if we just take the time to learn as much about them as they seem to know about us.
The results of his next study will be very interesting with him hoping to disprove the criticism of dogs only caring about humans only for food. It will involve feeding dogs through human and robotic forms to show how their attachments grow. Though, I do hope he can interpret them unbiasedly, something I doubt.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-fmri-can-tell-us-about-the-thoughts-and-minds-of-dogs-8390613/?no-ist
The first experiment involved the dogs learning two hand signals that acted as a stimulus for measuring their excitement/disappointment with the message they received from the researcher. One expressed that the dogs would receive a hot dog, the other showed they would not get a treat. Resulting in increased caudate activity for the food signal and limited illumination for no treat.
Receiving expected results in the hot dog experiment, Berns began a second study where the dogs were exposed to four different scents, including scents from familiar people and dogs as well as unknown people/dogs. The results consistently showed a single result, with the caudate lighting up like a Christmas tree for their owners with decreasing illumination in order of known dogs to the unknown scents.
The last experiment explained in the article involved the dogs’ owners being in the room with their dog but then leave from view of the dog spontaneously, resulting in the dimming within the caudate of the dog; however, when ‘their’ person reappeared, the caudate would again act, though this time it resulted in the caudate illuminating quickly and brightly.
While the results of Berns’ research are correct in my opinion, I do not think he is interpreting them in the correct fashion. His inspiration was the passing away of his pug, Newton; he wanted to find out if Newton loved him in the same way he did. He also, wants to gain legal rights for dogs, something I completely agree with, but is also trying to have them be considered “human”. They aren’t human, they don’t think or act like us; they will never be able to eat with a fork, drive a car or pee into a toilet. The worst mistake an animal behavioralist can make, no matter what specific field they are in, is to study animals as humans. While we can use human behavior as a baseline, seeing as that is all we know, studying animals as humans makes the researcher biased.
Society needs to start studying animals AS animals, researchers are too obsessed with trying to find similarities between species that they cannot seem to learn anything about our culture from learning theirs.
I come from an Archaeological background and remember about how dogs helped domesticate humans as much as we domesticated them. The theory is that natural selection made it so the wolves with social personalities survived because they would get closer to our ancestors in order to get scraps of food.
Which in turn led to the wolves having to earn their keep through becoming protectors of their tribes as well as hunting partners for the men, resulting in companionship which led to caring and love from both sides.
They taught us to feel love and loyalty so why can’t they feel the same in their own way. Dogs and humans have evolved together for millenniums and they can tell us a lot about ourselves if we just take the time to learn as much about them as they seem to know about us.
The results of his next study will be very interesting with him hoping to disprove the criticism of dogs only caring about humans only for food. It will involve feeding dogs through human and robotic forms to show how their attachments grow. Though, I do hope he can interpret them unbiasedly, something I doubt.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-fmri-can-tell-us-about-the-thoughts-and-minds-of-dogs-8390613/?no-ist
This is an extremely interesting article. I also have wondered if my dogs love me the same way I love them and I'm glad someone actually took the time to study that. I like that you point out the negative aspects of this study as well as the positive ones. I absolutely agree that while the animals we study should be treated humanely, they are not people. I wonder if there has been any research similar to this but with other animals such as cats or birds.
ReplyDeleteI have not read anything like this study before, while people have worked with teaching animals things such as great apes learning sign language, no one has thought to study them in such a way. Until now it has been thought that animals can only be studied through cultural observations.
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