Previous comparative fMRI studies on voice and speech perception were scarce and focused on primates, but revealing how and when certain neural sensitivities emerged during evolution requires comparisons also to evolutionarily more distant but socially proximal species (domestic animals). Additionally, EEG measurements on wild animals have so far been typically carried out using invasive methods, physical restrictions or sedation, raising ethical concerns and undermining data validity. VOIMA fills this gap by branching out to test companion animals and their wild forms using innovative non-invasive methods, in which the animals can freely participate.
An important asset of our lab is the ability to conduct neuroimaging experiments with different non-primate species across different modalities and paradigms. This allows for flexibility in asking questions and for cross-modality validations of findings. Our lab was the first to directly compare dog and human brain processes in the same neuroimaging experiment, and since VOIMA started we remained one of the 4-5 labs worldwide performing fMRI on awake, cooperating, unrestrained dogs. Since VOIMA started, we developed EEG protocols for awake, cooperating companion pigs. Furthermore, we pioneered at establishing EEG protocols for cooperating, unrestrained wild boar piglets. We adapt an innovative optical imaging technology (HD-DOT) for dogs, to provide the first non-invasive solution to study the brain of awake, untrained, cooperating animals with high spatial resolution.
Through the development of new methodologies and the inclusion of both dog, pigs, their wild forms, and developing individuals in our study populations, this project significantly extends the scope of comparative social neuroimaging research to reveal the degree of functional analogy and variation in voice neurocognition across phylogenetically distant mammal species. Our ongoing studies, conducting essential comparisons to track the developmental trajectory of potentially emerging neural sensitivities and determine their experiential or evolutionary origins will add to the understanding of how new cultural demands (imposed by the human social niche) may have shaped mammalian neural processes underlying voice and speech perception.
