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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Oct 5;17(10):e0274833.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274833. eCollection 2022.

Effects of contact with a dog on prefrontal brain activity: A controlled trial

Rahel Marti  1   2 , Milena Petignat  1 , Valentine L Marcar  2   3   4 , Jan Hattendorf  5 , Martin Wolf  4 , Margret Hund-Georgiadis  2 , Karin Hediger  1   2   5   6
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effects of contact with a dog on prefrontal brain activity: A controlled trial

Rahel Marti et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: There is a broad range of known effects of animal contact on human mental and physical health. Neurological correlates of human interaction with animals have been sparsely investigated. We investigated changes in frontal brain activity in the presence of and during contact with a dog.

Methods: Twenty-one healthy individuals each participated in six sessions. In three sessions, participants had contact with a dog, and in three control sessions they interacted with a plush animal. Each session had five two-minute phases with increasing intensity of contact to the dog or plush animal from the first to the fourth phase. We measured oxygenated, deoxygenated, and total hemoglobin and oxygen saturation of the blood in the frontal lobe/frontopolar area with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (SenSmart Model X-100) to assess brain activity.

Findings: In both conditions, the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin increased significantly from the first to the fourth phase by 2.78 μmol/l (CI = 2.03-3.53, p < .001). Oxygenated hemoglobin concentration was 0.80 μmol/l higher in the dog condition compared to in the control condition (CI = 0.27-1.33, p = .004). Deoxygenated-hemoglobin concentration, total hemoglobin concentration, and oxygen saturation showed similar patterns.

Conclusion: Prefrontal brain activation in healthy subjects increased with the rise in interaction closeness with a dog or a plush animal. Moreover, interaction with a dog stimulated more brain activity compared to the control condition, suggesting that interactions with a dog can activate stronger attentional processes and elicit more emotional arousal than interacting with a nonliving stimulus.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: M.W. is president of the board and cofounder of OxyPrem AG. R.M., M.P., V.L.M., J.H., M.H.-G., and K.H. have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study procedure.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Flow diagram of the study.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Effects of condition and phase on O2Hb, HHb, tHb, and oxygen saturation.
(A) O2Hb, (B) HHb, (C) tHb, and (D) oxygen saturation. Error bars denote confidence interval. Data is shown as relative change from phase neutral 1.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Effects of condition and number of contacts on O2Hb, HHb, tHb, and oxygen saturation.
(A) O2Hb, (B) HHb, (C) tHb, and (D) oxygen saturation. Error bars denote confidence intervals. Data are shown as relative change from phase neutral 1. The data for phase neutral 1 are not included in the presented means.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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