Data for: Representation of rewards differing in their hedonic valence in the caudate nucleus correlates with the performance in a problem-solving task in dogs (Canis familiaris)

Abstract We have investigated dogs’ (<em>Canis familiaris</em>) abilities in associating different sounds with food rewards of different incentive value. The establishment of the association was tested in a problem-solving behavioural paradigm, as well as in an fMRI study on the same subjects (N=20). The aim was to show behavioural, as well as parallel neural effects of the association formation between the two sounds and two different associated food rewards.<br> The latency of solving the problem was considered as an indicator of motivational state. In our behaviour study we found that dogs were quicker in solving a problem upon hearing the sound associated with food higher in reward value, suggesting that they have successfully associated the sounds with the corresponding food value. In the fMRI study, the cerebral response to the two sounds was compared both before and after the associative training. Two bilateral regions of interest were explored: the caudate nucleus and the amygdala. After the associative training the response in the caudate nucleus was higher to the sound related to a higher reward value food than to the sound related to a lower reward value food, which difference was not present before the associative training. We found an increase in the amygdala response to both sounds after the training. In a whole-brain representational similarity analysis, we found that cerebral patterns in the caudate nucleus to the two sounds were different only after the training. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between the dissimilarity index in the caudate nucleus for activation responses to the two sounds and the difference in latencies to solve the behavioural task: the quicker the dog solved the behavioural task the greater the difference in the neural representation of the two sounds was. In summary, family dogs’ brain activation patterns reflected their expectations based on what they learned about the relationship between two sounds and their associated rewards. This dataset contains Raw data (four functional runs n = 20) Dog brain template ROI results (Caudate nucleus and amygdala percentage of BOLD signal change and caudate nucleus response to sounds during the two post-training runs adding or not the Inter-scan interval as a covariate in the GLM model n = 20,) RSA results ( Dissimilarity change between sounds (post-training &gt; pre-training) and dissimilarity index per participant n = 20)摘要 本研究探讨了家犬（*Canis familiaris*）将不同声音与不同激励价值的食物奖励建立关联的能力。我们通过问题解决行为范式以及针对同一批被试（N=20）的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，对该关联的建立过程进行了测试。本研究旨在验证两种声音与两种不同关联食物奖励之间的关联形成所产生的行为效应及平行神经效应。 问题解决潜伏期被视为动机状态的指标。在行为实验中，我们发现犬类在听到与高奖励价值食物关联的声音时，解决问题的速度更快，这表明它们已成功将声音与对应食物价值建立了关联。 在功能磁共振成像研究中，我们对比了联想训练前后两种声音引发的大脑反应。我们选定了两个双侧感兴趣脑区：尾状核（caudate nucleus）与杏仁核（amygdala）。联想训练后，尾状核对高奖励价值食物关联声音的反应显著高于对低奖励价值食物关联声音的反应，而该差异在联想训练前并未出现。 训练后，杏仁核对两种声音的反应均有所增强。在全脑表征相似性分析（RSA）中，我们发现仅在训练后，尾状核中两种声音对应的大脑激活模式才存在差异。此外，我们还发现：尾状核中两种声音激活反应的差异指数与行为任务解决潜伏期的差值呈正相关——犬类解决行为任务的速度越快，两种声音的神经表征差异就越大。 综上，家犬的大脑激活模式反映了其基于对两种声音与关联奖励之间关系的学习所形成的预期。 本数据集包含以下内容：原始数据（4次功能成像扫描，样本量n=20）；家犬脑模板感兴趣区分析结果（尾状核与杏仁核的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号变化百分比，以及两次训练后扫描中，在广义线性模型（GLM）中是否加入扫描间隔作为协变量时，尾状核对声音的反应情况，样本量n=20）；表征相似性分析（RSA）结果（声音间的差异变化（训练后>训练前），以及每名被试的差异指数，样本量n=20）