They also found that similarly to humans, dogs use the left side of their brain to process meaning and the right side to process emotion or intonation.
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Using functional MRI, the researchers monitored dogs’ brain activity while they listened to a trainer saying a variety of things with a variety of tones.
While other species probably also have the mental ability to understand language like dogs do, their lack of interest in human speech makes it hard to test, said Andics.
They found that the canines’ left hemisphere picked up on the meaning of the words, regardless of the intonation, associating words with positive or negative experiences.
Hungarian researchers, lead by Attila Andics, of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, conducted a study of the brain activity of 13 dogs, who were trained to lie still in an fMRI brain scan machine. The team wrote that the results showed new insights into the evolution of language, with Andics saying that the “neural mechanism” used to process the meaning of words is “not uniquely human”.
The studies so far have shown how in tune with us dogs really are.
The scans showed the dogs left brain tended to be activated when they heard words that were meaningful to them.
What’s more, he says, this study is important because he thinks it’s the first major finding using noninvasive neuroscience with awake animals – usually they have to be drugged or restrained.
However, spelling out words that denote action does not make sense to the dogs. By matching words as well as tone, both parts of the brain worked together in order to give and interpret the meaning.
Lead researcher Dr Attila Andics, from the university’s Department of Ethology, explained: “We chose to look into the brain”. The dogs were then told several words by a person, some nonsense words and some words they were familiar with, in several different intonations. They can also be directed by our speech.
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“My dogs can always tell when my dad is talking to them because his voice is lower, so they know he means business”, Gilbert said. In other words, they heard you say the word “vet”, and they are not thrilled about it.
