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Encoding emotional valence and social motivation in the dog brain
Poster Session A, Wednesday, September 30, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Wangari Maathai
Franceska Furik1,2, Kincső Finta1, Attila Andics1,3, Tamás Faragó2; 1Neuroethology of Communication Lab, Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 2BARKS Lab, Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 3ELTE NAP Canine Brain Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
The study of pre-linguistic abilities in animals is necessary for identifying the prerequisites that may have contributed to the evolution of human language. Animal vocalizations typically convey both the signaler’s emotional valence (i.e., negative or positive affect) and social motivation (i.e., the hostile or non-hostile intent toward surrounding individuals); elements that are also present in human prosody. Furthermore, a recent study reveals that dogs adjust their distance from vocalizers preferentially according to the conveyed social motivation rather than to the emotional valence. Notably, the ability to decipher such states plays a crucial role in regulating agonistic to cooperative interactions and may suggest the existence of distinct neural representations of emotional valence and social motivation. Despite event-related potential (ERP) evidence that emotional valence discrimination occurs between 350 and 550 ms, there is, so far, scarce data on the neural correlates associated with the processing of perceived social motivation, even in humans. To address this gap, we are conducting a non-invasive EEG study on family dogs; 18 dogs have been tested so far. Subjects were presented with three different conspecific calls systematically varying along the emotional valence and social motivation dimensions: separation whines (i.e., negative & non-hostile calls), play growls (i.e., positive & non-hostile calls), and threatening growls (i.e., negative & hostile calls). We expect that if emotional valence and perceived social motivation are processed by distinct neural codes, then ERP differences will emerge for the two in distinct time windows. Results will be presented at the conference.
Topic Areas: Animal Communication and Comparative/Evolutionary Studies,