Understand what petting a dog can do for your brain

On one side of the room is the cutest life-size stuffed animal you’ve ever seen. On the other side is a puppy for real — same size, shape, and even the same name as the plush version.

You can sit next to these two cute friends and stroke their fur. Guess which one will make your brain light up?

If you guessed the real dog, you’re right. Stuffed animals, as cute and cuddly as they are, just don’t put a strain on our frontal cortex, the part of the brain that oversees how we think and feel, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“We chose to investigate the frontal cortex because this area of ​​the brain is involved in various executive functions such as attention, working memory and problem solving, but it is also involved in social and emotional processes,” explained the study’s lead author, Rahel Marti, PhD student in the division of clinical psychology and animal-assisted interventions at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Why is this discovery important? It provides additional evidence that live human-animal therapy interactions can increase cognitive and emotional activity in the brain, Marti said.

“If patients with deficits in motivation, attention, and socio-emotional functioning show greater emotional involvement in dog-related activities, these tasks may increase the chance of learning and achieving therapeutic goals,” she detailed.

This latest study adds to existing research on the benefits of animal-assisted therapy in medically supervised neural rehabilitation for nervous system conditions such as stroke, seizure disorders, brain trauma and infections.

“This is an interesting and rigorously conducted study that provides new insight into the associations between human-animal interaction and regional prefrontal brain activity in healthy adults,” said Dr Tiffany Braley, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan. at Ann Arbor, who has published research on the connection between pet ownership and cognitive health.

“While more work is needed on larger samples of people with specific neurological conditions, the current study could be used to inform future research of animal-assisted interventions for neurorehabilitation, providing new data on the type, intensity, and frequency of animal interactions needed to achieve the desired physiological goal or clinical benefits,” said Braley, who was not involved in the new research.

The researchers used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the study, which is a handheld brain scanner that offers flexibility as it works in natural environments and is not limited to a closed room in a lab. The technique measures brain activity through blood oxygen saturation in the brain.

The closer the better

The study team equipped each of the 19 participants with the scanner and asked them to observe and interact with one of three live dogs: a Jack Russell terrier, a goldendoodle and a golden retriever.

First, the recruits watched the dog from across the room. Then the dog sat down next to them. Finally, each person was allowed to pet the animal. This process took place twice more at later dates.

In other sessions, each person repeated the same sequence with a stuffed lion that held a hot water bottle to simulate the body temperature of a live dog. In each of the scenarios, the brain stimulation increased as the dog or stuffed animal approached.

“We found that brain activity increased when contact with the dog or a stuffed animal became closer. This confirms previous studies linking closer contact with animals or control stimuli with increased brain activation,” Marti said.

However, the study found an even stronger increase in brain activity when the person stroked the fur of a real dog versus the stuffed animal.

“We think that emotional involvement may be a central underlying mechanism of brain activation in human-animal interactions,” said Marti, adding that the stuffed animal is likely to trigger less affection.

The results echo the findings of other researchers, who found more brain activity when participants interacted with live rabbits, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and horses, she said.

“Positive nonverbal cues and reciprocal interactions provided by a living animal may partly explain this difference,” suggests Braley.