维也纳大学神经科学家劳尔·埃尔南德斯-佩雷斯及其研究团队利用MRI脑扫描技术，为犬类能够区分人类不同负面情绪提供了首次神经影像学证据[1]。这项研究使用机器学习分析发现，狗在处理恐惧和悲伤时激活的脑区存在差异，表明犬类的神经表征能力超越了简单的情绪价值判断[1]。研究成果已发表在期刊《iScience》上[1]。
研究涉及两个阶段，分别使用八只和十二只狗作为实验对象[1]。研究人员发现，右前脑沟回在区分恐惧和悲伤时发挥关键作用，而右中外侧沟回和左脾体回则用于区分恐惧和愤怒[1]。值得注意的是，研究中未检测到愤怒和悲伤激活脑区的显著差异[1]。
Neuroscientists at the University of Vienna have provided the first MRI evidence that dogs' brains process human fear and sadness as distinct emotions rather than generic negative states.[1] The research, conducted by Raul Hernandez-Perez and colleagues, employed machine learning analysis of brain scans to identify which regions activate when dogs process different emotional expressions.[1]
The study, published in the journal iScience, involved two separate experiments with eight and twelve dogs respectively.[1] The findings revealed that dogs activate different brain regions when distinguishing fear from sadness, with the right rostral suprasylvian gyrus playing a key role in differentiating these two emotions.[1] Additional brain areas—the right mid-external sulcus and left splenium—were found to activate when dogs discriminated between fear and anger.[1] However, the research detected no significant differences in brain activation patterns between anger and sadness.[1]
