Staring into the eyes of your furry friend and petting them can get your brain in sync with their eyes, scientists have found.
This kind of brain wave synchronization, known as interbrain activity coupling, has been observed before in human-human interactions and between members of other species. But now it has been seen in human-dog pairs, according to a new paper in the journal Advanced Science.
This is the first time that the ability to synchronize brain activity is seen between two individuals of different species.
The authors of the paper wrote: “This study is the first to report and characterize interbrain activity coupling during cross-species interactions. Our results show that the strength, direction, and brain regions associated with interbrain activity coupling during human-dog interactions are. with human-to-human interaction.”
Dogs have been man’s best friend for over 30,000 years, and domestication is believed to have occurred when certain wolves began to interact with human hunter-gatherer societies. As wolves are sold and become dogs, they become more tame, trainable and social and develop a higher tolerance for humans and attention.
“Dogs have evolved to read, understand and respond to various human emotional states and communicative signals through behavior, facial expressions, and even vocal tones, providing an extraordinary level of active companionship that is not often found in domestic animals or other companions. , such as cats,” wrote the author.
“However, the neural mechanisms underlying the distinctive and effective communication between humans and dogs are largely unknown,” he said.
In human-human pairs, as well as in mouse, bat and non-human primate pairs, brain activity appears to synchronize in areas including the frontal and parietal regions, both of which are associated with joint attention.
“Interbrain neural coupling is shown to reflect reciprocity in social interactions, joint attention, and the quality and outcome of social interactions,” the researchers wrote.
Using wireless electroencephalograms in humans and dogs interacting—by looking into each other’s eyes and petting—the researchers found that this synchronization also occurs between the two species.
“By analyzing the electroencephalography signals of both dogs and humans, it was found that mutual gaze and petting lead to interbrain synchronization in the frontal and parietal regions of the human-dog (pair), respectively,” the researchers wrote.
This ability to synchronize brain activity appears to strengthen as the couple becomes more familiar.
“Synchronization strength increased with human-dog (pair) familiarity over five days, and information flow analysis showed that humans were leaders while dogs were followers in human-dog interactions,” the researchers said. .
This synchronization was found to be absent if the dog was genetically mutated and had the same social disorder trait as autism in humans.
“Dogs with Shank3 mutations, which represent a complementary animal model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), show loss of interbrain coupling and reduced attention during human-dog interactions,” the researchers wrote.
Interestingly, the effects of this autism-like genetic mutation appear to be reversed if the dog is given a small dose of LSD. This suggests that LSD may play a role in helping autistic people manage social interactions, although more research into this link needs to be done.
“For the first time we show that a single dose of LSD can rescue impaired interbrain coupling and joint attention in Shank3 mutant dogs, which suggests that LSD has the potential to improve social deficits in ASD, although the mechanism underlying the rescue effect remains unclear,” the researchers wrote. .
Do you have any tips on science stories? Newsweek should cover? Do you have questions about dogs? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Reference
Ren, W., Yu, S., Guo, K., Lu, C., & Zhang, YQ (2024). Disrupted Human-Dog Interbrain Neural Coupling in Autism-Associated Shank3 Mutant Dogs. Advanced Science. doi: 10.1002/advs.202402493