Figure 1.
Study Schematic of the Experimental Design.
Illustration of the passive viewing paradigm of dog and child images used. Sixteen unique color photos of faces: 4 own child (OC), 4 own dog (OD), 4 unfamiliar child (UC), 4 unfamiliar dog (UD) presented in 16 sec blocks (4 images/block) over 6 fMRI runs. Each block of images was followed by a screen with a fixation cross (FX).
Table 1.
Participant Characteristics (n = 14).
Table 2.
fMRI results for main effect of relationship (own vs. unfamiliar) in brain regions of interest.
Figure 2.
Brain activation maps and graphs for the own child (OC) vs. unfamiliar child (UC) contrast in mothers who are dog owners (n = 14).
There was greater activation for the own child vs. unfamiliar child contrast in SNi/VTA (A) and less deactivation for this contrast in NAcc/ventral striatum (B). Bar graphs display ROI activation magnitude by image category using REX (http://web.mit.edu/swg/software.htm) to extract the beta/contrast values from significant clusters based on the results of our group-level fMRI analysis. Activation is overlaid on the SPM8 MNI 152 T1 template. Scale bar indicates t values. Error bars depict 95% confidence intervals.
Table 3.
fMRI results for own child > unfamiliar child contrast in brain regions of interest (n = 14).
Figure 3.
Greater activation for own child (OC) vs. fixation cross (FX; a,b) and own dog (OD) vs. FX (c,d) contrasts in mothers who are dog owners (n = 14).
Note the more extensive activation in (a) amygdala (coronal view) for the OC > FX compared to the OD > FX images (c). There is also activation in (b) SNi/VTA (axial view) for the OC > FX images that is not present in the OD > FX images (d). Activation is overlaid on SPM8 single subject T1 template. Other conventions the same as in Figure 2.
Table 4.
fMRI results for the own child > fixation contrast in brain regions of interest (n = 14).
Table 5.
fMRI results for the own dog > fixation contrast in brain regions of interest (n = 14).
Figure 4.
Brain activation maps and graphs for the own dog vs. own child contrast.
There was greater activation for the own dog vs. own child contrast in fusiform gyrus (A) and less deactivation for own child vs. own dog contrast in NAcc/ventral striatum (B). Other conventions the same as in Figure 2.
Figure 5.
Graphs of the post-scan valence (Fig. 5a) and arousal (Fig. 5b) ratings show significant differences between own child (OC) > unfamiliar child (UC) and own dog (OD) > unfamiliar dog (UD; valence and arousal) and UD > UC (arousal).
All ps < 0.05. Error bars depict 95% confidence intervals.