Dog Brains Are a Lot Like Ours
Study leader and dog lover Attila Andics started studying canines as a way to understand how the mammalian brain processes language.
The first step was not an easy one: Training dogs to remain absolutely still in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. It took several months for dog trainers to work their magic on 13 pet dogs that live in Hungary, including six border collies, four golden retrievers, one German shepherd, and one Chinese crested.
“The hardest part was getting them to understand that they needed to lie absolutely still. Once they realized that we meant completely still, it worked out great,” says Andics, an ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. (See “Can Dogs Feel Our Emotions? Yawn Study Suggests Yes.”)
Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
In 2014, Andics and colleagues showed how the brains of the same 13 dogs respond to various vocalizations, like grunts, barks, whines, and shouts, from both people and other dogs. Happy and fearful sounds activated similar brain areas in both species, their study found.
Speech, however, was different. “There’s nothing in nature that’s as complex as human speech,” said Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at University College London who wasnt part of the new study.
So with the same group of 13 dogs, Andics and colleagues played recordings of their owners talking in four different ways: A praising word (such as the Hungarian word for “clever” or “that’s it”) in a praising tone, a neutral word in a neutral tone, a praising word in a neutral tone, and a neutral word in a praising tone.
His neuroimaging results showed that the left hemisphere of the dogs’ brains responded to the word itself, and that their right hemisphere responded to intonation. (See “5 Amazing Stories of Devoted Dogs.”)
However, it took both a praise word and a praising tone to activate the dog’s reward center. In other words, your pet knows when you’re praising them and you actually mean it.
“For some dogs, praise might be enough to get them to do what you want. In this study, we treated our dogs like happy volunteers who wanted to please us,” Andics said.
The key to good dog behavior, then, is letting your pet know that they really are a good dog.
Follow Carrie Arnold on Twitter.
Dogs Also Read Body Language
Just like dogs communicate things to humans through body language, people do the same thing. Your dog can pick up on cues based on gestures, how you hold your body, etc. A study has also shown that dogs can read human emotional facial expressions.
Dogs’ brains share a lot of similarities with human brains, even dreaming while they sleep. So if you’re holding a tense posture, your dog will likely pick up on your stress. If your body language is loose and comfortable, your pup will understand that you’re relaxed and in a good mood, etc.
What’s More Important? What We Say or How We Say It?
It’s likely a bit of both. A study in Current Biology found that dogs potentially differentiate between various components of human speech. In other words, they can distinguish between what you’re saying and other factors, such as the emotional tone of your voice.
If you speak excitedly and positively, your dog will most likely respond in kind. However, if you speak this way to tell your dog you’re going to the vet, they might still tuck their tail and run.
But, overall, how you say something significantly impacts how your dog reads it. This concept stands true in human-to-human communication though as well. You can tell someone you’re happy for them, but if you say it in a grumpy way, will they believe you? So, how you speak plays a role in how your dog interprets your communication.
Dogs actually understand what you’re saying, study shows
You might think your dog understands every word you say to him – but chances are he isn’t hanging on your every word, a new study has found.
In spite of their “human-like” auditory capabilities for interpreting speech sounds, dogs do not hear the subtle differences between words in the way that humans do, a team of researchers has found.
Words are made up of speech sounds, which, if changed, alter the entire meaning – for example, “dog” can turn to “dig.”
Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest measured the brain activity of family dogs using a technique called electroencephalography, which involved taping electrodes to the animals’ heads.
The researchers played the dogs recorded instruction words they knew (such as “sit”), similar but nonsense words (“sut”), and then, very different nonsense words (“bep”).
Experts found that dogs, who had not been specifically trained for the experiment, could quickly and clearly tell the difference between the known instruction words and the very different nonsense words.
“The brain activity is different when they listen to the instructions, which they know, and to the very different nonsense words, which means that dogs recognize these words,” lead study author Lilla Magyari told CNN.
However, the animals did not pay attention to the small differences between known words and similar-sounding nonsense words. Instead, the canine study subjects processed them as the same word, Magyari, a postdoctoral researcher at the department of ethology at Eötvös Loránd University, told CNN.
Dogs are renowned for their auditory capacity and their ability to hear words and sounds well, Magyari said, and they are able to differentiate speech sounds.
“But it seems like they don’t really pay attention to all of the speech sounds,” she said, adding that further research could explain why.
“They may just not realize that all details, the speech sounds, are really important in human speech. If you think of a normal dog: That dog is able to learn only a few instructions in its life,” she said.
While our canine companions may not recognize all the nuances, Magyari said that the study also confirmed that dogs actually listen to human speech, as suggested by previous studies – and don’t just respond to familiar humans or body language.
“It really shows that dogs can differentiate the words that they know from nonsense words,” she said, noting that family dogs registered brain activity even when listening to instruction words delivered by an unfamiliar voice, delivered through a speaker.
The findings were published in the Royal Society Open Science journal on Tuesday. Ad Feedback Ad Feedback Ad Feedback