Thread by @bunsenbernerbmd

Petting a dog has a PAWSITIVE effect on your brain.
The science is so wholesome and potentially groundbreaking.
🧵
#TSPST

We don’t have to tell animal lovers that petting a dog rules.
If you see a dog and you get to say hi to the dog and then you ask to PET the dog and you are ALLOWED to pet the dog is pretty much the BEST DAY EVER.
Science explains why!

In the journal PLOS ONE a team of scientists decided to put dogs up against adorable stuffies while scanning for specific types of brain activity.
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

The humans selected were placed in one of three groups.
A group that got to interact with dogs.
A group that got into interact with a stuffed dog.
A group that go to stare at a wall.
Yes, being in the last group would have sucked.

In all of the trials the humans had their brains scanned with something called fNIRS or functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
That’s a fancy machine which measures brain activity via oxygen saturation in the brain.

The team thought that frontal cortex of brain would show greater excitement.
This part of your brain is responsible for attention, memory and problem solving.
It's perhaps why PETTING a dog is so memorable.
Perhaps your brain is MORE engaged!

First the dog/stuffie was across the room.
Then it was right next to them.
Then they got to pet it.
After the first round of these trials, the participants were send home and then had to come back to repeat the experiment.
This is where things get REALLY wholesome.

The wall group was the baseline and compared to that control, both the stuffie and real dog group had more brain activity in the pre-frontal cortex.
So, even the stuffie caused an increase!
The increase was the MOST when the participants were petting the stuffie or the dog.

BUT when the participants came back for the second and third trial the data was shocking!
The stuffie group showed a plateau or a decrease in the second and third trial, while the real dog group showed an increase each time.
The conclusions are adorable.

The humans in the trial had made a bond with their real dog, were happy and excited to see their dog, and their brain was more active.
The humans in the stuffie trial perhaps now thought their situation was silly and not novel anymore,.
Why is this important?

If people or kids with deficits in attention or motivation are doing activities where there is a dog, those activities would be done at the same time the brain is very engaged and focused.
Activities like learning or therapeutic classes would have a greater impact.

The evidence continues to mount.
Petting Dogs do provide a measurable response in the human brain.
It’s overwhelmingly positive to be around a dog.
The area of the brain needed for learning is engaged when petting a dog.
Dogs are just awesome.

That's a wrap!

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