Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food

Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/062703
Peter F. Cook
1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ashley Prichard
1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mark Spivak
2Comprehensive Pet Therapy, Atlanta, GA 30328
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Gregory S. Berns
1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: gberns@emory.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Dogs are hypersocial with humans, and their integration into human social ecology makes dogs a unique model for studying cross-species social bonding. However, the proximal neural mechanisms driving dog-human social interaction are unknown. We used fMRI in 15 awake dogs to probe the neural basis for their preferences for social interaction and food reward. In a first experiment, we used the ventral caudate as a measure of intrinsic reward value and compared activation to conditioned stimuli that predicted food, praise, or nothing. Relative to the control stimulus, the caudate was significantly more active to the reward-predicting stimuli and showed roughly equal or greater activation to praise versus food in 13 of 15 dogs. To confirm that these differences were driven by the intrinsic value of social praise, we performed a second imaging experiment in which the praise was withheld on a subset of trials. The difference in caudate activation to the receipt of praise, relative to its withholding, was strongly correlated with the differential activation to the conditioned stimuli in the first experiment. In a third experiment, we performed an out-of-scanner choice task in which the dog repeatedly selected food or owner in a Y-maze. The relative caudate activation to food-and praise-predicting stimuli in Experiment 1 was a strong predictor of each dog’s sequence of choices in the Y-maze. Analogous to similar neuroimaging studies of individual differences in human social reward, our findings demonstrate a neural mechanism for preference in domestic dogs that is stable within, but variable between, individuals. Moreover, the individual differences in the caudate responses indicate the potentially higher value of social than food reward for some dogs and may help to explain the apparent efficacy of social interaction in dog training.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted July 07, 2016.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food
Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns
bioRxiv 062703; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/062703
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food
Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns
bioRxiv 062703; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/062703

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Animal Behavior and Cognition
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4095)
  • Biochemistry (8786)
  • Bioengineering (6493)
  • Bioinformatics (23386)
  • Biophysics (11766)
  • Cancer Biology (9167)
  • Cell Biology (13290)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7422)
  • Ecology (11386)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15119)
  • Genetics (10413)
  • Genomics (14024)
  • Immunology (9145)
  • Microbiology (22108)
  • Molecular Biology (8793)
  • Neuroscience (47445)
  • Paleontology (350)
  • Pathology (1423)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2483)
  • Physiology (3711)
  • Plant Biology (8063)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1433)
  • Synthetic Biology (2215)
  • Systems Biology (6021)
  • Zoology (1251)