Canine sense of quantity: evidence for numerical ratio-dependent activation in parietotemporal cortex

Aulet, Lauren S; Chiu, Veronica; Prichard, Ashley; Spivak, Mark; Lourenco, Stella F.; Berns, Gregory S.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0666

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Intraparietal sulcus involvement has been detected also in 4-year-old children and earlier in 3-month-old infants measuring event-related potentials (Temple and Posner, 1998;Izard et al, 2008;Kersey and Cantlon, 2017). A similar pattern of activation, although more generally distributed in the parietotemporal cortex, was observed when dogs (Canis familiaris) passively watched set of dots in an fMRI study (Aulet et al, 2019). Activity measured in this region crucially depended on the ratio between different numerosities, obeying Weber's law.…”

Section: Posterior Parietal Cortexmentioning

confidence: 56%

Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

2021

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The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.

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Section: Posterior Parietal Cortexmentioning

confidence: 56%

Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

2021

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“…Because of the variability in response threshold across dogs, we used a customized approach that identified the most likely cluster of voxels in each dog. This was done by varying the voxel threshold of the statistical map for each dog to the [all objects—faces] contrast or [novel objects—faces] (for dogs trained on actions) so that one cluster remained that was 20–40 voxels in extent (Aulet et al, 2019) (Table 2). This object‐response, thresholded, t‐mask was then used as an ROI for Study 2.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mouth matters most: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of how dogs perceive inanimate objects

Prichard

Chhibber

Athanassiades

et al. 2021

J of Comparative Neurology

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The perception and representation of objects in the world are foundational to all animals. The relative importance of objects' physical properties versus how the objects are interacted with continues to be debated. Neural evidence in humans and nonhuman primates suggests animate-inanimate and face-body dimensions of objects are represented in the temporal cortex. However, because primates have opposable thumbs and interact with objects in similar ways, the question remains as to whether this similarity represents the evolution of a common cognitive process or whether it reflects a similarity of physical interaction. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in dogs to test whether the type of interaction affects object processing in an animal that interacts primarily with its mouth. In Study 1, we identified object-processing regions of cortex by having dogs passively view movies of faces and objects. In Study 2, dogs were trained to interact with two new objects with either the mouth or the paw. Then, we measured responsivity in the object regions to the presentation of these objects. Mouth-objects elicited significantly greater activity in object regions than paw-objects. Mouth-objects were also associated with activity in somatosensory cortex, suggesting dogs were anticipating mouthing interactions. These findings suggest that object perception in dogs is affected by how dogs expect to interact with familiar objects.

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“…During passive presentation of sequences of auditory or visual stimuli, a very small proportion of neurons in the feline posterior association cortex (posterior part of the middle supra-sylvian gyrus) responded to the specific numbers of items. More recently, functional imaging has revealed patchy quantity activations in various cortical regions, including parietal areas, in awake dogs passively viewing dot arrays [59].…”

Section: Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolutionary History of Brains for Numbers

Nieder

2021

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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Humans and other animals share a number sense', an intuitive understanding of countable quantities. Having evolved independent from one another for hundreds of millions of years, the brains of these diverse species, including monkeys, crows, zebrafishes, bees, and squids, differ radically. However, in all vertebrates investigated, the pallium of the telencephalon has been implicated in number processing. This suggests that properties of the telencephalon make it ideally suited to host number representations that evolved by convergent evolution as a result of common selection pressures. In addition, promising candidate regions in the brains of invertebrates, such as insects, spiders, and cephalopods, can be identified, opening the possibility of even deeper commonalities for number sense. A Sense of Number Emerging from Phylogenetically Diverse BrainsHumans and nonhuman animals across the animal kingdom share an intuitive understanding of countable quantities, or numerical quantity (see Glossary) (henceforth 'number') [1]. Distinct zoological groups arising from a common ancestral bilaterian (Box 1)from vertebrates like fishes, birds, and mammals to invertebrates such as insects, spiders, and cephalopodsall possess the ability to discriminate numerical quantity. Numerical quantity refers to the number of elements in a set ('numerosity') and needs to be differentiated from a representation of continuous quantity (Box 2). This 'sense of number' provides survival and reproductive advantages in various animal taxa that can be traced through evolutionary history [2]. HighlightsDiverse species from across the animal tree of life share an intuitive understanding of countable quantities.

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Canine sense of quantity: evidence for numerical ratio-dependent activation in parietotemporal cortex

Cited by 24 publications

References 42 publications

Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

The mouth matters most: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of how dogs perceive inanimate objects

The Evolutionary History of Brains for Numbers

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