Jessica Taubert¹, Cate MacColl¹, Callyn Farrell¹, Amanda K. Robinson¹, Virginia Slaughter¹, Jason B. Mattingley¹; ¹The University of Queensland

Our ability to recognize faces is calibrated by experience. For example, if children are exposed to monkey faces, they retain the ability to recognize monkey faces, unlike children that are not exposed to monkey faces (Pascalis et al., 2002, Science). It remains unclear, however, how experience infleunces the underlying neural representation of faces. Here we measured the BOLD response to human faces and dog faces in children between 8 and 12 years of age (N = 71) using 3 Tesla fMRI. During each run, participants viewed 40 images of human faces, 40 images of dog faces, and 40 images of non-face objects (vehicles). To maintain their attention, we used a “Catch the Pokémon” task whereby participants reported the presentation of Pokémon characters as quickly as possible. All participants completed 4-8 runs. The children were divided into two groups (35 neurotypical children and 36 neurodiverse children) based on an official diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and/or autism spectrum disorder. In addition, caregivers reported whether they had a pet dog at home and the quality of the interactions between the child and the dog. We defined face-selective areas in occipitotemporal cortex using the contrast between human faces and objects. Dog faces elicited more activity in face-selective areas for children in the neurodiverse group than the neurotypical group. For both groups, the magnitude of the response in face-selective areas was correlated with the number of months the child had lived with a pet dog at home. We are currently using these data to investigate the possibility that human-animal interactions, and increased attention to the faces of pets, can “reboot” the face-selective network in neurodiverse children. In sum, our findings suggest that having a pet dog at home during childhood can change the tuning properties of face-selective brain areas in children.

Acknowledgements: Funded by 2022 NARSAD Young Investigator award (BBRF 31020)