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Description: As a gregarious species, sheep use olfactory, visual and auditory information during intra and inter species social interactions, which are critical for survival. The neural substrates of sheep olfactory and visual social interaction have been studied by cellular or electrophysiological approaches. Yet, despite the known behavioural importance of vocalisations for sheep social interaction, their auditory system remains scientifically unexplored. This project will use in vivo structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to discover the auditory network of the sheep brain, its functional organisation and its social information processing mechanisms. The fundamental knowledge delivered by this project about the auditory perceptual and cognitive capacities of sheep will also contribute to understanding their welfare needs, determined by both physical and mental factors under current definitions. By establishing cognitive neuroimaging techniques capable of investigating the perceptual and cognitive capacities of livestock, it will also help to release the untapped potential of cognitive neuroscience to infer and investigate the mental lives of animals. Funding for this project is provided by the French National Research Agency (ANR) - project number ANR-20-CE20-0001-01.