Figure 2. Experimental procedure and results of the fMRI experiment.

(A) Sessions of the fMRI experiment: after a baseline fMRI measurement (bottom row), dogs were exposed to the stimuli for 16 min outside the scanner (familiarization, top row) and then immediately underwent a test fMRI measurement (bottom row). The two fMRI sessions were identical and consisted of alternating silence and audio blocks. During the familiarization session, audio blocks followed each other without an inserted silence.

(B) Two types of audio blocks were created. In the structured condition, syllables formed artificial words, characterized by higher transitional probabilities for within-word syllables (TP = 1) than word boundary syllables (TP = 0.33). For the unstructured condition, a different syllable set was used, and the syllables followed each other in a random order, resulting in an overall lower TP for all syllables than 0.3 (mean TP = 0.09). Within one audio block, stimulus presentation was uninterrupted, whereas data were acquired using sparse sampling, i.e., four 1.7-s acquisitions interspersed with silence gaps (6.3 s).

(C) Group level contrasts of the structured and unstructured condition rendered on a template dog brain. The resulting cluster is primarily located at the region of basal nuclei encompassing portions of the caudate nucleus and the thalamus. Thresholds: p < 0.001, uncorrected for multiple comparisons at the voxel level and FWE-corrected threshold of p < 0.05 at the cluster level. L BG, left basal ganglia. Scale bar represents voxel-level t value.

(D) Parameter estimates of the structured and unstructured condition in the baseline and test fMRI measurements at the main peak of the group level differences [−6, −8, 6]. Error bars represent the SEM. *p < 0.05.

(E) ROI analysis. Bilateral auditory cortex mask created from the Cornell Canine Atlas ⁶³ and the results of the ROI analysis of parameter estimates. **p < 0.01. See also Audio S1 and Tables S2, S3, and S5.