Yes, Dogs Apparently Do Understand What We’re Saying
“...According to a new study, not only do dogs comprehend what we’re trying to tell them by the tone of our voices, but they can also even understand what it is we’re saying — sort of.
Neuroscientist Attila Andics & his fellow researchers at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest discovered that just like human brains, a dog’s brain reacts to both the meaning of a word & how it is spoken. Just like us, the left hemisphere of a dog’s brain responds to meaning, while the right hemisphere responds to intonation.
The study...shows that even non-primate mammals who cannot speak can still comprehend the meanings of words in a speech-filled environment. This suggests that the ability of our brains to process words is not unique to humans, & may have evolved much earlier than previously thought.
Not only could these results help make communicating with our dogs more efficient, but the study sheds new light on the origin of words during language evolution. ‘What makes words uniquely human is not a special neural capacity, but our invention of using them,’ Andics said...
...The 13 participants were all family pets. They included 6 border collies, 5 golden retrievers, a Chinese crested dog, & a German shepherd.
To be tested, the dogs were first trained to lie still for 8 minutes in the MRI machine while wearing headphones & a radiofrequency coil...Their brain activity was recorded as they listened to a recording of their trainer saying, in both positive & neutral tones, words of praise – like ‘Good boy!’ & ‘Well done!’ – as well as neutral words like ‘however’ & ‘as if.’
...the positively spoken positive words got a big reaction in the reward centers of the dogs’ brains. The positive words spoken neutrally & neutral words spoken with positive tones? Not so much.
Regardless of how they were spoken, the dogs processed the meaningful words in the left hemisphere of their brains. They processed intonation in the right hemisphere.
...'It shows that these words have meaning to dogs. They integrate the 2 types of information to interpret what they heard, just as we do.’...”
Laura Goldman
care2.com
September 5/ 2016
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