Canine Brains ProjectNov 29, 2022

The Canine Brains Project has finally joined Mastodon! Here's our #introduction! 🐶 🧠 🎓

We are scientists from Harvard's Hecht Lab who are studying dog #neuroscience and #behavior. We are interested in how #genes, #neuroanatomy, #dogtraining, and lifetime experiences shape dogs' minds. We also study how dog brains and behaviors #evolve.

#dog #dogsofmastodon #evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #evolutionaryneuroscience #animalbehavior #ethology #MRI #neuroimaging #workingdogs

Show threadErin Giglio

@caninebrainsproject at some point I am absolutely dying to take a deep look at herding breeds in the context of decision-making and neurodivergence. Obviously nothing is a perfect parallel but I genuinely think there's some incredibly cool stuff lurking there that no one has really gotten around to parsing.

V excited to see what comes out of the project!

Nov 30, 2022 at 3:35amWeb
Show threadCanine Brains ProjectDec 1, 2022
@eringiglio Cool idea! We've heard owners of herding breeds mention this potential parallel before. Researchers are beginning to use dogs as models for studying some forms of neurodivergence, particularly ADHD and OCD. We agree that there's much to be learned in this area!
Show threadErin GiglioDec 2, 2022
@caninebrainsproject absolutely--the dopamine transmitter mutation common in Malinois in particular looks like something that could be really useful, if we take the time to untangle it and deeply understand it.