Hemispheric Specialization in Dogs for Processing Different Acoustic Stimuli

Title
Hemispheric Specialization in Dogs for Processing Different Acoustic Stimuli
Publication Date
2008
Author(s)
Siniscalchi, Marcello
Quaranta, Angelo
Rogers, Lesley
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0003349
UNE publication id
une:5673
Abstract
Considerable experimental evidence shows that functional cerebral asymmetries are widespread in animals. Activity of the right cerebral hemisphere has been associated with responses to novel stimuli and the expression of intense emotions, such as aggression, escape behaviour and fear. The left hemisphere uses learned patterns and responds to familiar stimuli. Although such lateralization has been studied mainly for visual responses, there is evidence in primates that auditory perception is lateralized and that vocal communication depends on differential processing by the hemispheres. The aim of the present work was to investigate whether dogs use different hemispheres to process different acoustic stimuli by presenting them with playbacks of a thunderstorm and their species-typical vocalizations. The results revealed that dogs usually process their species-typical vocalizations using the left hemisphere and the thunderstorm sounds using the right hemisphere. Nevertheless, conspecific vocalizations are not always processed by the left hemisphere, since the right hemisphere is used for processing vocalizations when they elicit intense emotion, including fear. These findings suggest that the specialisation of the left hemisphere for intraspecific communication is more ancient that previously thought, and so is specialisation of the right hemisphere for intense emotions.
Link
Citation
PLoS One, 3(10), p. 1-7
ISSN
1932-6203
Start page
1
End page
7

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