A real-time brain-monitoring device could enhance drug and explosive detection by confirming when a dog has identified a scent, reducing training times and providing objective data to verify canine alerts.
By Pesach Benson, TPS
A groundbreaking Israeli study investigating the brain activity of dogs during scent detection has led to the development of an optical sensor capable of remotely sensing their brain activity.
The technology paves the way for advancements in rescue operations, law enforcement, and even healthcare.
To better understand how canines distinguish between scents, Bar-Ilan University scientists utilized an innovative and non-invasive optical sensor to monitor dogs’ brain activity in three key regions — the olfactory bulb, hippocampus, and amygdala.
This approach could potentially lead to the creation of a portable device translating canine olfactory responses into data usable by humans.
The study was recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Biophotonics.
“The findings show that the amygdala is crucial in the way dogs process and react to odors, with specific scents triggering distinct emotional and memory responses,” said Prof. Zeev Zalevsky from the Kofkin Faculty of Engineering at Bar-Ilan University.
“We are capable of optically detecting their brain activity in this region, which could be the first step toward creating a device that enables us to better understand and interpret the unique way dogs perceive and differentiate smells.”
The amygdala — a small, almond-shaped structure located deep within the brain’s temporal lobe — is a key component of the limbic system, which is responsible for processing emotions, memory, and decision-making.
With millions of specialized receptors in their noses, dogs can detect a vast range of odors, distinguishing even the faintest scents.
For the study, researchers employed laser technology and a high-resolution camera to monitor brain responses in real time across four dog breeds.
The dogs were exposed to four different scent stimuli — garlic, menthol, alcohol, and marijuana — while their brain activity was analyzed using a machine-learning algorithm.
The results highlighted the amygdala’s pivotal role in scent differentiation, particularly its link to emotional and memory-related processing of odors.
Unlike traditional methods such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) or Electroencephalography (EEG), which require sedation or restrictive setups, this laser-based speckle pattern detection technique allows for remote monitoring of brain activity without impeding the dog’s natural behavior.
This breakthrough makes it possible to study canine olfaction in real-world environments.
“Our next step is to develop a portable, Wi-Fi-controlled device equipped with a mini camera and laser system, which could be mounted on a dog’s head and used to monitor its olfactory responses in real time,” said Dr. Yafim Beiderman.
“This could significantly enhance the way dogs are used in scent detection, from identifying illegal substances to diagnosing diseases in humans, all while deepening our understanding of how they perceive the world around them. More importantly, this real-time sensing could bypass the need to train dogs to utilize their scent abilities.”
The study’s findings have significant potential for rescue operations, law enforcement and healthcare.
A real-time brain-monitoring device could enhance drug and explosive detection by confirming when a dog has identified a scent, reducing training times and providing objective data to verify canine alerts.
For search-and-rescue missions, the device could streamline efforts by providing live updates when a dog detects human scent, enabling quicker response times and reducing false positives.
In healthcare, this technology could improve early disease detection, such as cancer or diabetes, by pinpointing the neural response when a dog detects a specific condition, and also enhance the reliability of service dogs by providing real-time alerts to caregivers.
Moreover, the findings could potentially inspire advancements in artificial olfaction, leading to improved robotic sensors for various applications, including environmental monitoring and biohazard detection.