Funktionale und strukturelle Asymmetrien in der Gesichtswahrnehmung bei Hunden: Die Rolle der Domestikation

Hemispheric asymmetries play a fundamental role in brain organization across the animal kingdom, underpinning sensory, cognitive and motor functions. Their involvement in social perception, particularly face processing, is well documented in humans, showing a predominantly right-hemisphere specialization. However, it remains poorly understood in nonhuman species, including domestic dogs, despite their advanced socio-cognitive abilities and behavioral traits akin to humans due to shared evolutionary history. The objective of this study is to investigate the evolutionary conservation and species-specific adaptations of neural systems for face processing in canids by comparing domestic dogs and wolves. It aims to examine species and hemispheric differences in the structural organization of the face-processing brain network, assess lateralized attentional biases toward human and conspecific faces and determine how domestication and social experience shape these systems, enhancing our understanding of the evolution of social cognition. This study uses as comparative approach, combining diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-based structural data from postmortem brains with functional data from eye-tracking in living dogs and wolves. Structural connectivity will be analyzed using tractography based on constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) applied to formalin-fixed brains of naturally deceased animals. Attentional bias will be assessed using a remote eye tracking system in pet dogs, human-raised dogs, and hand-raised wolves exposed to conspecific and heterospecific facial stimuli presented as video and live displays of neutral and playful/happy expressions. This proposal offers a multidimensional, non-invasive and innovative approach to investigate the neural basis of face processing in canids by combining structural and functional analyses in domestic dogs and wolves. It will be the first to investigate the structural connectivity of face-sensitive cortical areas in the canine brain and the first to apply diffusion MRI-based tractography to the wolf brain. By adapting CSD tractography using DWI data to formalin-fixed postmortem canid brains, it applies the only noninvasive method for mapping structural connectivity and extends a technique recently validated in dolphins to a new taxon, opening a new avenue in comparative neuroscience. Moreover, it will be the first systematic comparison of lateralized attentional biases for face processing in dogs and wolves, using a remote eye-tracking system recently developed for dogs (no training required) and the first use of eye-tracking in wolves. Primary researchers involved Dr. Sevim Isparta (applicant), Prof. Dr. Friederike Range (mentor), Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Onur Güntürkün (cooperation partner) and Dr. Tommaso Gerussi (cooperation partner).

FWF ESPRIT

University of Padua
Funktion: AssoziierterPartner
Abteilung: Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science (BCA),
Ruhr-Universität-Bochum
Funktion: Subkontraktor
Abteilung: Abteilung Biopsychologie Institut für Kognitive Neurowissenschaft Fakultät für Psychologie

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