Subject 2, aka McKenzie, inside the FMRI machine. Image: Berns et al./SSRN
Brain scans of dogs could give researchers a new tool for studying what happens in the mind of man’s best friend.
“I think it could open a whole new type of research on cognition, ” said neuroscientist Greg Berns of Emory University, lead author on a dog-scanning study that will be published in Public Library of Science One.
Berns described the initial findings, in which brain regions expected to become active in anticipation of reward did just that, as a proof-of-concept to show that studying a dog inside a functional magnetic resonance imager was logistically feasible.
According to Berns, who typically investigates how human decision-making plays out in our brains, dogs may be a better animal model for studying cognition than the monkeys commonly used in such research.
FMRI representations of neurological activity produced by reward anticipation in the brains of Callie and McKenzie. Image: Berns et al./SSRN
To a monkey, a laboratory full of humans is a profoundly strange and unnatural environment, which could influence how it thinks — whereas interacting with humans is second nature to dogs.
Of course, standing inside an FMRI machine isn’t exactly a normal canine experience, and Berns’ team needed eight months to train his dogs, a 2-year-old feist named Callie and a 3-year-old border collie named McKenzie, to remain motionless inside the machine while wearing noise-reducing earmuffs.
Among the questions that might be studied is whether dogs understand the language of human commands, or respond more to body movements or other cues.
“One of the things we’re interested in is how dogs represent humans: Are we all just a pack to them, like Cesar Millan says? What part of the brain represents humans and other dogs? It could be sound, or scent, or any of those modalities, ” Berns said.
Dog empathy, and how it compares to the human version, is another possible area of investigation.
“Dog-lovers are convinced their dogs know what they’re feeling. Honestly, I’m on the fence about that. Maybe that’s because of my own dogs, ” said Berns. “Skeptics out there — a.k.a. cat people — think dogs are just good actors. I don’t think it’s quite like that. But how far it goes, I’d love to figure out.”
Citation: “Functional MRI in Awake Unrestrained Dogs.” By Gregory Berns, Andrew Brooks and Mark Spivak. Public Library of Science ONE, publication date to-be-determined.
- functional ['f??k??nl]adj. 功能的
- resonance ['rez?n?ns]n. [力] 共振；共鳴；反響
- canine ['keinain]adj. 犬的；犬齒的；犬科的；似犬的; n. ...
- typically ['tipik?li]adv. 代表性地；作為特色地
- profoundly [pr?u'faundli]adv. 深刻地；深深地；極度地
- feasible ['fi:z?bl]adj. 可行的；可能的；可實(shí)行的
- magnetic [m?ɡ'netik]adj. 地磁的；有磁性的；有吸引力的
- collie ['k?li]n. 柯利牧羊狗（原產(chǎn)蘇格蘭）
- representation [,reprizen'tei??n]n. 代表；表現(xiàn)；表示法；陳述
- interact ['int?r?kt]vi. 互相影響；互相作用; vt. 互相影響；...
大腦掃描看看你的狗在想什么
科目2 ，又名麥肯齊，在功能磁共振成像儀里（FMRI）。圖片：伯恩斯等/ 社科研究網(wǎng)（SSRN）
狗的大腦掃描這種新的技術(shù)，可以讓研究人員研究人類最好的朋友的大腦發(fā)生了什么。
“我認(rèn)為這可以開辟在認(rèn)知領(lǐng)域整個研究的新類型，”埃默里大學(xué)的神經(jīng)科學(xué)家格雷格·伯恩斯說，作者對狗的掃描研究成果將發(fā)表在公共科學(xué)圖書館的雜志上。
伯恩斯描述了初步的研究結(jié)果，對狗的大腦進(jìn)行掃描時，期待獎勵的區(qū)域就像預(yù)料的那樣活躍，作為一個概念證據(jù)，表明內(nèi)部功能磁共振成像儀對狗進(jìn)行研究是最合適不過了。
按伯恩斯的說法，通常探討人類的大腦如何更有效地進(jìn)行工作，狗可能是更理想的動物模型，比在這樣的認(rèn)知研究中常用的猴子還要理想。
考利和麥肯齊大腦中獎勵預(yù)期產(chǎn)生的神經(jīng)活動FMRI成像圖。圖片：伯恩斯等/ SSRN
對于猴子來說，站滿人的實(shí)驗(yàn)室是一個極度陌生和不自然的環(huán)境，這可能影響它的思維—而狗則不然，與人類相互作用是它的第二天性。
當(dāng)然，站在的功能磁共振成像機(jī)里面的狗并不是那么老實(shí)，伯恩斯的團(tuán)隊(duì)用了8個月的時間來訓(xùn)練他的狗，一個2歲的名叫考利的小狗和3歲的名為麥肯思的博德牧羊犬，它們戴著降噪的耳罩在機(jī)器內(nèi)一動不動。
研究的問題里包括狗是否能夠理解人類發(fā)出的指令，通過身體動作或其他線索做出更多的應(yīng)答。
“我們感興趣的事情之一是狗是如何看待人類的：是像塞薩爾·米倫說的我們在它們的眼里都只是一個包裹一樣的東西嗎？狗的大腦的哪些部分代表對人類的印象，哪部分代表對其他的狗的印象？可能是一種聲音，或一種氣味，或任何其他的什么東西，“伯恩斯說。
狗和人類換一下位置進(jìn)行比較，是另一種可行的研究方向。
“狗的愛好者都相信他們的狗知道他們的感受。說實(shí)話，我也這樣認(rèn)為。也許是因?yàn)槲易约阂灿泄?，“伯恩斯說?！皯岩烧撜摺蛘哒f貓的愛好者—認(rèn)為狗是很好的演員。我不完全這樣認(rèn)為。但有多大的差距，我很想弄清楚?！?/p>
引用： “狗在自由狀態(tài)下的功能磁共振成像情況?！备窭赘昀铩げ魉埂驳卖敗げ剪斂怂?、馬克·斯皮瓦克。公共科學(xué)圖書館-綜合，出版日期待定。
