Abstract: Sensory perception is central to how animals communicate and interact with their environment. Insight into sensory processes is essential for understanding animal cognition and improving their welfare1,2. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in voluntary awake and unrestrained sheep, we noninvasively mapped brain regions involved in auditory and somatosensory processing – two modalities crucial for social communication3. The auditory cortex, located bilaterally in the ectosylvian gyrus, revealed evidence of tonotopy and voice selectivity, with the dorsal posterior part emerging as a strong candidate for the primary auditory cortex. Gentle back stroking induced activations in the anterior suprasylvian sulcus and other somatosensory areas. These findings reveal the organization of sensory cortices in conscious livestock and provide insight into the neural basis of their mental states. This approach paves the way for investigating both normal and pathological sheep brain function with animals who have the choice to participate or not. It also overturns long-standing stereotypes about sheep as passive or cognitively limited animals, showing instead that they can voluntarily engage in complex tasks.
Pluchot et al. (Tue,) studied this question.