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Dogs can sense weak thermal radiation.

ABSTRACT: The dog rhinarium (naked and often moist skin on the nose-tip) is prominent and richly innervated, suggesting a sensory function. Compared to nose-tips of herbivorous artio- and perissodactyla, carnivoran rhinaria are considerably colder. We hypothesized that this coldness makes the dog rhinarium particularly sensitive to radiating heat. We trained three dogs to distinguish between two distant objects based on radiating heat; the neutral object was about ambient temperature, the warm object was about the same surface temperature as a furry mammal. In addition, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging on 13 awake dogs, comparing the responses to heat stimuli of about the same temperatures as in the behavioural experiment. The warm stimulus elicited increased neural response in the left somatosensory association cortex. Our results demonstrate a hitherto undiscovered sensory modality in a carnivoran species.

SUBMITTER: Balint A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7048925 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Dogs can sense weak thermal radiation.

Bálint Anna A Andics Attila A Gácsi Márta M Gábor Anna A Czeibert Kálmán K Luce Chelsey M CM Miklósi Ádám Á Kröger Ronald H H RHH

Scientific reports 20200228 1

The dog rhinarium (naked and often moist skin on the nose-tip) is prominent and richly innervated, suggesting a sensory function. Compared to nose-tips of herbivorous artio- and perissodactyla, carnivoran rhinaria are considerably colder. We hypothesized that this coldness makes the dog rhinarium particularly sensitive to radiating heat. We trained three dogs to distinguish between two distant objects based on radiating heat; the neutral object was about ambient temperature, the warm object was ...[more]

PMID: 32111902

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Project description:Disaster search dogs traverse diverse and unstable surfaces found in collapsed buildings. It is unknown if the physical conditioning on a treadmill involves the same muscle groups that are involved in rubble search. This 14-week prospective cohort study was conducted to investigate changes within the thermal gradients of specific dog muscles following treadmill compared to rubble search. Nine dogs, ranging in age from 6 months to 4 years, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each week the two groups would participate in either 20 min of treadmill or rubble searches. Prior to exercise, the dogs were weighed and then kenneled in a temperature-controlled study room for 20 min at 21°C. Pre-exercise thermal images were then captured of the standing dog from the dorsal, left and right lateral, and caudal perspectives, and of the sitting dog from the rostral perspective. Following a 10-min warm-up period of stretches, dogs proceeded to either treadmill or search. Upon completion, dogs were kenneled in the study room for 20 min prior to post-exercise thermal images. Images were sectioned into 22 muscle regions, the pre-exercise images were subtracted from the post-exercise images to determine the temperature difference (ΔT) for that dog, on that day, for that activity. Thermography measures radiant energy, temperature, and converts this information into an image. This study looked at ΔT within a region pre and post-exercise. The study failed to find a statistically significant difference in the ΔT within each muscle group between treadmill and search activities. There was a decrease in ΔT within all muscle regions over the of the study except for the right cranial shoulder, right caudal shoulder, and right hamstring for the treadmill activity only. The decrease was significant in the pelvis, left longissimus, right cranial shoulder for the search activity, left oblique, left caudal shoulder, and left quadricep muscular regions. These findings suggest that ΔT in muscle groups are similar between treadmill exercise and rubble search. Regardless of the exercise type, 14 weeks of structured Search and Rescue training and treadmill exercise resulted in less ΔT associated with a structured weekly exercise.

Project description:PurposeTo assess the effect of a combination of compressed sensing and SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) acceleration techniques on radiation therapy magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulation workflows.Methods and materialsThirty-seven acquisitions were performed with both SENSE-only (SENSE) and combined compressed sensing and SENSE (CS) techniques in 24 patients receiving radiation therapy MRI simulation for a wide range of disease sites. The anatomic field of view prescription and image resolution were identical for both SENSE and CS acquisitions to ensure fair comparison. The acquisition time of all images was recorded to assess time savings. For each image pair, image quality, and ability to contour were assessed by 2 radiation oncologists. Aside from direct image pair comparisons, the feasibility of using CS to improve MRI simulation protocols by increasing image resolution, field of view, and reducing motion artifacts was also evaluated.ResultsCS resulted in an average reduction of 27% in scan time with negligible changes in image quality and the ability to contour structures for RT treatment planning compared with SENSE. Physician scoring of image quality and ability to contour shows that while SENSE still has slightly better image quality compared with CS, this observed difference in image quality did not affect the ability to contour. In addition, the higher acceleration capability of CS enabled use of superior-inferior direction phase encoding in a sagittal 3-dimensional T2-weighted scan for substantially improved visibility of the prostatic urethra, which eliminated the need for a Foley catheter in most patients.ConclusionsThe combination of compressed sensing and parallel imaging resulted in marked improvements in the MRI Simulation workflow. The scan time was reduced without significantly affecting image quality in the context of ability to contour. The acceleration capabilities allowed for increased image resolution under similar scanning times as well as significantly improved urethra visualization in prostate simulations.

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Dogs can sense weak thermal radiation.

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Dogs can sense weak thermal radiation.

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