New Study Says Dogs Understand Language Exactly Like Humans Do, Because Dogs Are Great

Whenever I leave my house, I say one of two things to my dog. If I’m heading out for less than four hours, I say, “Be right back.” If it’s going to be longer than that, I say, “See you later.”

I’ve been doing it for so long, years now, that I’ve started to wonder if she knows the difference between the two.

Probably not, I’ve concluded. But maybe! Especially after a new neurological study of dogs. A group of scientists in Hungary determined dogs process human language the exact same way humans do.

Researchers at the University of Budapest recruited a bunch of collies and golden retrievers and trained them to chill in MRI machines.

While in them, a trainer said a bunch of shit to the dogs: some words of praise, and some nonsense, mixing up the inflection and intonation.

From The Washington Post:

Using the brain activity images, the researchers saw that the dogs processed the familiar words regardless of intonation, and they did so using the left hemisphere, just like humans. Tone, or the emotion behind the word, on the other hand, was analyzed in the auditory regions of the right hemisphere — just as it is in people, the study said.

What the scientists concluded from the study is that dogs get when words are meant for them, and whether there is meaning behind them. So while a dog may hear the word “treat” in a conversation, it won’t process it in the same way if you aren’t actually planning on offering the dog a treat.

Pretty neat, huh?

And if you wanna see a lot of pictures of dogs getting MRIs (which I HIGHLY suggest you do), read the whole article here.

[Via The Washington Post]