Recently there have been new brain scan imaging studies conducted on dogs using special MRI machines. The studies have amazingly shown that both dogs and humans process voices and emotion in very similar ways. Even though scientists have found that monkeys have similar regions in their brain that are able to attune to voices, it was previously not believed that dogs and other animals shared these traits with humans.
The test was conducted in a laboratory by one of the world’s foremost researchers on canine intelligence and behavior. The finding reported that the particular voice areas in the dogs’ brains light up on the special MRI machines in similar ways that human brains do. Not only do both the dog and human subjects respond to voices in a similar way, but when the emotional tone of the voices or barks were changed, there were different patterns observed on the MRI machines with these different tones. To pet parents and even pet lovers, this research may not come as a big surprise, but it’s great to see actual evidence.
Therefore, this is exciting news since it would seem that dogs and other mammals share these similar areas of the brain for processing voices and emotion. It is hoped that in the future, these type of scans may be able to show what dogs hear when humans speak.