Dogs use same parts of brain to process speech as humans, Hungarian study says

The study showed that dogs, like people, use the left hemisphere of their brain to process words, and a right hemisphere brain region to process intonation. Praise activates dogs’ reward center only when both words and intonation match.

“We showed dogs praise words and non-praise words, in both praising and non-praising intonation, and we found that dogs just like humans can separately process word meaning information … in the speech signal and intonational information,” lead researcher Attila Andics of the Department of Ethology told Reuters.

“Super, well done,” her trainer says, and Maya, a Hungarian golden retriever, happily holds up her left paw, responding to the praise, according to Reuters.

Maya works with a group of Hungarian researchers at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, who have scanned the brains of 13 dogs, finding that dogs process words and intonation to work out messages similarly to humans.

In the research, 13 dogs of different breeds, including border collies, golden retrievers, a Chinese crested dog and a German shepherd, were trained to lie completely motionless in an MRI scanner for seven minutes so that researchers could measure their brain activity while they listened to words from their trainers.

They had headphones on, and heard praise words in praising intonation like “super”, “well done,” “good boy,” Andics said.

Dogs heard praise words in praising intonation, praise words in neutral intonation, and also some neutral conjunction words, meaningless to them, in praising and neutral intonations.

“The reward center in dogs’ brains became activated for praise words in praising intonation but not for any of the other three combinations,” Andics said.

“But also beyond linguistic stimuli, whether they are really happier to hear some types of sounds than other types of sounds. Are there music they like more than other music? We now have an objective measure by looking at the reward center to answer these types of questions,” he added.

 

H.Z

 

You might also like
Latest news
Jordan and Egypt condemn the latest Israeli aggression on Syria Funeral of the martyrs in the Israeli aggression that targeted Nawa city in Daraa Jordan's King stresses need to support Syria's efforts to maintain its security and stability Trump's new tariffs affect Syria by 41% Fact-Finding Committee on Syrian Coast events: Detainees' testimonies should be documented Nine people martyred, several others wounded due to the Israeli bombardment of Daraa Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the latest wave of Israeli attacks on Syria A ship, carrying 147 heavy vehicles, arrives at Lattakia port to support Syria's transport sector Israeli occupation fires artillery shells on Tal al-Jumu' area in Daraa, makes incursion into Sad al... Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam congratulates Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Eid Al-Fitr More than 14 Israeli airstrikes target Hama military airport and the Scientific Research Center in D... Anticipated meeting between Presidents al-Sharaa and Trump in Saudi Arabia next month Governor of Hama visits families in displacement camps in Syria's northern region on the occasion of... Syrian faces South Sudan in the Arab Cup qualifiers German Foreign Ministry welcomes the formation of the new Syrian government  Ukraine Welcomes the Formation of the New Syrian Government Israeli occupation kills and injures dozens of Palestinians in Gaza during the past 24 hours Charities in Homs arry out Humanitarian Initiatives for Orphaned Children and Elderly Israeli Occupation detains a citizen from Koya village in Daraa Al-Shibani: Growing international support for new Syrian government will help lift sanctions, suppor...