Chengetanai Samson, Bhagwandin Adhil, Bertelsen Mads F, Hård Therese, Hof Patrick R, Spocter Muhammad A, Manger Paul R
Department of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Parktown, South Africa.
Copenhagen Zoo, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
J Comp Neurol. 2025 Jul;533(7):e70071. doi: 10.1002/cne.70071.
Social behaviors in the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) commonly involve a range of tactile aspects, including biting, pushing, embracing, mounting, face and muzzle licking, nose-chin and muzzle contact, paw placement, play fighting, and wrestling, supported by the vestibular system. We employed an array of architectural and immunohistochemical stains to provide a qualitative description of the somatosensory and vestibular systems in the brain of one representative African wild dog individual. The appearance of both systems does not appear to differ from that reported in other Carnivora. The six nuclei forming the vestibular system, and their relationship to each other and the incoming vestibular branch of the eighth cranial nerve, appear like those observed in many mammalian species. The location and appearance of the dorsal column nuclei, the trigeminal sensory column, the colliculi, somatosensory nuclei of the dorsal thalamus, and the five somatosensory cortical areas observed in the African wild dog are like those observed in the domestic dog and other Carnivora. This study of the somatosensory and vestibular systems of the African wild dog completes our series of studies describing the major sensory systems in the African wild dog brain. It appears reasonable to conclude that, at the systems level of analysis, no overt specializations of any of the sensory systems are present. Thus, the neural underpinnings of the complex sociality of the African wild dog may be supported by nonsensory neural systems, such as motor, neuromodulatory, limbic, or cognitive systems, or levels of organization like receptor expression patterns or connectivity.
非洲野犬（Lycaon pictus）的社会行为通常涉及一系列触觉方面，包括撕咬、推搡、拥抱、骑跨、舔脸和口鼻、鼻-下巴和口鼻接触、爪子放置、嬉戏打斗和摔跤，这些行为由前庭系统提供支持。我们采用了一系列组织学和免疫组织化学染色方法，对一只具有代表性的非洲野犬个体大脑中的躯体感觉和前庭系统进行定性描述。这两个系统的外观似乎与其他食肉动物中报道的没有差异。构成前庭系统的六个核团，以及它们彼此之间的关系和第八对脑神经传入的前庭分支，看起来与许多哺乳动物物种中观察到的相似。在非洲野犬中观察到的背柱核、三叉神经感觉柱、丘、背侧丘脑的躯体感觉核以及五个躯体感觉皮层区域的位置和外观，与家犬和其他食肉动物中观察到的相似。这项对非洲野犬躯体感觉和前庭系统的研究完成了我们对非洲野犬大脑主要感觉系统的系列研究。可以合理地得出结论，在系统分析层面，任何感觉系统都没有明显的特化。因此，非洲野犬复杂社会性的神经基础可能由非感觉神经系统支持，如运动、神经调节、边缘或认知系统，或像受体表达模式或连接性这样的组织层面。
