By Petting Your Dog And Gazing Into Their Eyes, You Can Synchronize Your Brain Activity With Theirs, Scientists Say
By petting your dog and gazing into their eyes, you can synchronize your brain with theirs, according to scientists.
In the past, this kind of synchronization of brain waves, known as interbrain activity coupling, has been seen in human interactions and interactions between humans and members of other species.
Now, it has been observed in human and dog pairs. It is the first time that synchronized brain activity was detected between two individuals of different species.
“This study is the first to report and characterize interbrain activity coupling during cross-species interactions. Our results show that the strength, direction, and attention-associated brain regions of the interbrain activity coupling during human-dog interactions are similar to those during human-human interactions,” wrote the study authors.
For over 30,000 years, dogs have been “man’s best friend.” It is believed their domestication happened when certain wolves started interacting with human societies of hunter-gatherers.
As wolves were domesticated, they became more docile, social, and trainable. They also developed a greater tolerance for human presence.
According to the authors, dogs have evolved to understand and respond to a diverse range of human emotional states and communication signals. They can read behaviors, facial expressions, and vocal tones. However, the neural mechanisms behind the communication between dogs and humans have remained unclear.
Brain activity tends to synchronize in areas such as the frontal and parietal regions in human-to-human pairs, as well as in pairs of bats, mice, and nonhuman primates. Both of these brain regions are associated with joint attention.
The researchers used wireless electroencephalograms on humans and dogs interacting with each other by looking into each other’s eyes. They discovered that synchronization occurred between the two species.
wittybear – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person or dog
“By analyzing electroencephalogram signals from both dogs and humans, it is found that mutual gaze and petting induce interbrain synchronization in the frontal and parietal regions of the human-dog [pairs], respectively,” wrote the researchers.
As the pairs grew more familiar with each other over the course of five days, the ability to synchronize brain activity appeared to strengthen.
The information flow analysis suggested that the human took on the role of the leader, and the dog was the follower during these interactions.
If the dogs were genetically mutated and had social impairment traits similar to autism in humans, the synchronization did not occur.
“Dogs with Shank3 mutations, which represent a promising complementary animal model of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), show a loss of interbrain coupling and reduced attention during human-dog interactions,” the researchers wrote.
When the dogs with the genetic mutation were given a small dose of LSD, the effects of the mutation seemed to be reversed.
The finding indicates that LSD may help individuals with autism manage social interactions. More research needs to be done to confirm this link.
The study was published in the journal Advanced Science.
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