Topic: non-social stimuli

To investigate the origins of social cognition, we need to look beyond the human species. Investigations within primates constrain us to a linear understanding of evolution. Dogs have emerged as an alternative animal model because our last common ancestor with them dates back 95-100 million years. They have advanced socio-cognitive skills, even when discounting recent domestication effects, not present in many other mammals, suggestive of convergent rather than linear evolution. Moreover, they can be trained to perform awake and unrestrained functional magnetic resonance imaging. To better und