Touching a dog leads to higher and higher levels of activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
- The prefrontal cortex helps regulate and process social and emotional interactions.
- To assess the volunteers’ brain activity, the team measured oxygenated, deoxygenated and total hemoglobin as well as blood oxygen saturation in the frontal lobe.
Preventing heart disease, stimulating the immune system, boosting morale… Pets help preserve our physical and mental health. “To date, the neurological associations of human interaction with animals have been little studied,” said researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland. This is why they decided to carry out a study published in the journal Plos One.
Measure the brain activity of 21 adults in the presence of a dog
As part of this research, they analyzed the changes in frontal brain activity in the presence of a dog and when one comes into contact with this four-legged animal. For this, the scientists recruited 21 people. In a first experiment, volunteers watched, petted a dog, and let it lie down next to them. Then they did the same but with a stuffed animal that was filled with water to match the temperature and weight of the dogs. During these tests, the activity of the prefrontal cortex of the participants’ brains was measured using infrared neuroimaging technology.
Brain: greater activity of the prefrontal cortex
According to the authors, prefrontal brain activity was greater when participants interacted with the “real” dogs, and that this difference was greater for petting, which was the most interactive condition. This result was not observed during interactions with the stuffed animal. That “suggests that interactions with a dog can activate stronger attentional processes and elicit greater emotional arousal”, concluded the scientists.
