Dogs understand human words and intonation, study finds
Andics and his team used brain scanners and 13 willing family dogs.
Brain imaging technique offers new insights
New research has revealed that dogs may understand human words, not just the tone in which they're said.
Writing in the journal Science, researchers show how dogs have brain areas dedicated to interpreting voices and distinguishing sounds.
The team hope the finding will offer new insights into the origins of language, as well as gratify dog lovers.
In the study, lead author Attila Andics and his team used brain scanners and 13 willing family dogs from four breeds: border collies, golden retrievers, Chinese crested dogs and German shepherds.
The dogs were trained to lie motionless on the scanner while they listened to recordings of their trainer's voice. The dogs heard meaningful words (well done) in a neutral and praising tone. They also heard meaningless words (as if) also in a neutral and praising tone.
When the team analysed the brain scans, they found that - regardless of the trainer's intonation - the dogs processed the meaningful words in the left hemisphere of the brain, just like humans do. But the dogs didn't do this for the meaningless words.
"There's no acoustic reason for this difference," said lead author Andics, from Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. "It shows that these words have meaning to dogs."
The team also found that the dogs processed intonation in the right side of the brain, also like humans. When they heard words of praise delivered in a praising tone, the reward area of their brain lit up. This indicates that meaning and tone enhance each other.
The team say the results will add to existing knowledge of how dogs' brains process human speech.
'Neural mechanisms to separately analyse and integrate word meaning and intonation in dogs suggest that this capacity can evolve in the absence of language,' they conclude.
Birmingham Dogs Home has issued an urgent winter appeal as it faces more challenges over the Christmas period.
