Learn about the Canine Brains Project and other amazing canine science in Inside the Mind of a Dog, streaming now on Netflix!
Peer-Reviewed Scientific Literature
Barton, S. A., Smaers, J. B., Serpell, J. A., & Hecht, E. E. (2025). Brain-behavior differences in pre-modern and modern lineages of domestic dogs. Journal of Neuroscience.
Cordeau, M., Barton, S. A., & Hecht, E. E. (2025). Organization of distributed cortical connections underlying the processing of auditory information in dogs assessed by diffusion MRI. Imaging Neuroscience.
Reilly, O. T., Somerville, L. H., & Hecht, E. E. (2024). Mechanisms of Social Attachment Between Children and Pet Dogs. Animals, 14(20), 3036.
Levin I, Sinha M, Barton SA, & Hecht EE (2024). A left-lateralized white matter tract associated with communication in domestic dogs. Current Biology, 34(21):R1069-R1070.
Barton, S.A., Kent, M., & Hecht, E. E. (2024). Covariation of skull and brain morphology in domestic dogs. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 532(9), e25668.
Sexton, C. L., Buckley, C., Sen, M., Subiaul, F., Hecht, E. E., & Bradley, B. J. (2024). Making or breaking the case for a plain face–Is human perception of canine facial expressivity influenced by physical appearance? Human-Animal Interactions, 12(1).
Sexton, C. L., Buckley, C., Lieberfarb, J., Subiaul, F., Hecht, E. E., & Bradley, B. J. (2023). What is written on a dog’s face? Evaluating the impact of facial phenotypes on communication between humans and canines. Animals, 13(14), 2385.
Barton, S. A., Kent, M., & Hecht, E. E. (2023). Neuroanatomical asymmetry in the canine brain. Brain Structure and Function, 228(7), pp. 1657-1669.
Rogers Flattery, C.N., Abdulla, M., Barton, S.A., Michlich, J.M., Trut, L.N., Kukekova, A.V. and Hecht, E.E. (2023). The brain of the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes): a neuroanatomical reference of cell-stained histological and MRI images. Brain Structure and Function, 228(5), pp. 1177-1189.
Hecht, E.E., Barton, S.A., Flattery, C.N.R. and Meza, A.M. (2023). The evolutionary neuroscience of domestication. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(6), pp. 553-567.
Hecht, E.E., Zapata, I., Alvarez, C.E., Gutman, D.A., Preuss, T.M., Kent, M. and Serpell, J.A. (2021). Neurodevelopmental scaling is a major driver of brain–behavior differences in temperament across dog breeds. Brain Structure and Function, 226, pp. 2725-2739.
Hecht, E.E., Kukekova, A.V., Gutman, D.A., Acland, G.M., Preuss, T.M. and Trut, L.N. (2021). Neuromorphological changes following selection for tameness and aggression in the Russian farm-fox experiment. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(28), pp. 6144-6156.
Hecht, E.E., Smaers, J.B., Dunn, W.D., Kent, M., Preuss, T.M. and Gutman, D.A. (2019). Significant neuroanatomical variation among domestic dog breeds. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(39), pp. 7748-7758.
Media Articles
I signed up my dog for a brain study at Harvard. Here’s what I learned. By By Marcela García | The Boston Globe | March 2024
Your Dog’s Emotions, Explained (Because Dogs Have Feelings, Too!) By Janelle Leeson | Rover.com | August 2023
Does your dog care if you die? By Alvin Powell | Harvard Gazette | February 2022
New wrinkle in tale of wolf-to-dog evolution By Juan Siliezar | Harvard Gazette | July 2021
Breeding Foxes for Opposite Behaviors Produces Similar Brain Changes Neuroscience News | June 2021
Did humans truly domesticate dogs? Canine history is more of a mystery than you think. By Kate McGowan | Popular Science | February 2020
Centuries of breeding have reshaped dog brains – and here’s how By Liz Langley | National Geographic | September 2019
Hunters, herders, & companions: Breeding dogs has reordered their brains By Jill Radsken | Harvard Gazette | September 2019
As humans shaped dogs’ bodies, we also altered their brains By Jason Bittel | The Washington Post | September 2019
A dog’s breed is a window onto its brain Nature | September 2019
Humans haven’t just changed what dogs look like—we’ve altered the very structure of their brains By Eva Frederick | Science | September 2019
Canine MRIs Sniff Out How Human Preferences Shaped Dog’s Hallmark Traits By Sharon Begley | Scientific American | September 2019
Different dog breeds have different brains, scientists find | By Ed Cara | Gizmodo | September 2019
Will This Dog Hunt? By William Inman | Georgia State University Magazine | Fall 2018
Podcasts & Interviews
What’s going through our dogs’ brains? Harvard is on the case | GBH Radio | Interview with Sophie Barton | March 2025
Dog Works Radio | Interview with Sophie Barton | March 2025
Innovation Showcase: The Canine Brains Project | Interview with Sophie Barton | April 2024
A Harvard study into how working dogs’ brains have evolved for their function Dogs with Jobs: Petersfield’s Shine Radio | Interview with Sophie Barton | April 2024
How centuries of selective breeding has changed the shape of dogs’ brains CBC: As It Happens | Interview with Dr. Erin Hecht | September 2019
Study Finds Humans Over Time Have “Systematically” Shaped the Brains of Dogs WBUR | Interview with Dr. Erin Hecht | September 2019