RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Awake fMRI Reveals Mechanisms of Language Comprehension in Dogs
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 178186
DO 10.1101/178186
A1 Ashley Prichard
A1 Peter F. Cook
A1 Mark Spivak
A1 Raveena Chhibber
A1 Gregory S. Berns
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/20/178186.abstract
AB To what extent do dogs understand human language? At a basic level, lexical processing would require the differentiation of words from non-words, while semantic processing would further require the recognition of word meaning. To determine the level of language processing, we trained 12 dogs to retrieve two objects based on object names, then probed the neural basis for these auditory representations using awake-fMRI. As a control, we compared the neural response to pseudowords versus trained words, and novel objects versus trained objects during the fMRI scan. If dogs lexically processed the trained words, then a differential auditory response would be predicted to occur to trained words relative to pseudowords. Moreover, if dogs used semantic processing, there should be a difference in activation between the two trained words. In support of lexical processing, we found greater activation for pseudowords relative to trained words bilaterally in the parietotemporal cortex, but no activation difference between the two trained words. However, multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) revealed statistically significant clusters of informative voxels for the two trained words in the thalamus, left temporoparietal region, and left caudate nucleus. These results suggest a different mechanism of language comprehension than in humans. The dogs’ greater activation for pseudowords in the parietotemporal cortex indicates an underlying bias for novelty rather than semantic processing of words as object-referents, while the MVPA results suggest a potential link between words/sounds and motor action.Funding This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research (N00014-16-1-2276).Competing Interests G.B. and M.S. own equity in Dog Star Technologies and developed technology used in some of the research described in this paper. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by Emory University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.