Dogs and Deciphering the Human Voice: Study

Dogs have gained the reputation as "man's best friend" over the years, and why not? They're loyal and above all, very obedient. Yet a recent study examines how voice cues prompt our favorite pets to firmly understand different commands-including sit, stand and stay, among others.  

For the study, researchers from the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Hungary discovered that just like humans, dogs' brains also contain an area that's dedicated to voice and certain sensitive emotional cues heard in voices.

"Dogs and humans share a similar social environment," said study author Attila Andics, of the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Hungary, via National Geographic. "Our findings suggest that they also use similar brain mechanisms to process social information. This may support the success of vocal communication between the two species."

For the study, researchers used functional MRI to monitor the brain activity in 22 people and 11 dogs--all border collies and golden retrievers-- while they heard nearly 200 sounds made by both humans and dogs, with training sessions in the MRI machine once a week for 20 weeks. 

Scans showed that both groups have similar voice area centers in their brains, located near the primary auditory cortex of box species.

The findings suggest that the these voice areas in both dogs and humans evolved nearly 100 million years ago from a common ancestor between the two species.

Researchers believe this and future studies could hold insight regarding how dogs seem to identify with our own emotions.

"At last we begin to understand how our best friend is looking at us and navigating in our social environment," Andics said. 

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Current Biology.