Now Reading: Dogs can distinguish human emotions, brain scans confirm
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Dogs can distinguish human emotions, brain scans confirm
A new study in iScience shows that dogs can tell the difference between happy, angry, sad, and fearful human expressions. Researchers at the University of Vienna and Eötvös Loránd University trained pet…
The Story in Brief
A new study in iScience shows that dogs can tell the difference between happy, angry, sad, and fearful human expressions. Researchers at the University of Vienna and Eötvös Loránd University trained pet dogs to stay awake during fMRI scans and measured their brain activity while the animals looked at photos of strangers making different faces. When dogs saw happy faces, brain regions linked to reward and higher cognition lit up. The dogs also showed distinct neural patterns for each negative emotion, suggesting they do not simply sort feelings into good and bad.
The study included only pet dogs with owners. The scientists caution that free-ranging dogs may process human cues differently. The team now wants to understand how dogs combine facial signals with voice and scent to grasp what humans feel.
The Indian Opinion
This study gives dog owners science to back what they already know. But the real news is how much we still misunderstand canine cognition. The lazy narrative that dogs merely react to tone or body language is now disproven. The question is whether this ability is a product of domestication or a deeper shared mammalian trait. Watch for follow-up work comparing dog brains with wolf brains. That answer will settle the nature-versus-nurture debate and tell us if we shaped them or if they were already built to read us.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
