Dogs' Brains Can Decipher Emotion

Nothing new to those of us who are dog custodians (I don't say owner if you've met my Coonhound). Thought it was fascinating how we share some similarities in our brains that measure "emotional valence"

In 2000, scientists scanned people’s brains and discovered a piece of neural real estate that’s dedicated to the task: a spot above the ear that responds to vocal sounds more strongly than other types of sounds...A brain-scanning study published today in Current Biology reports similar voice regions in the dog brain. One region responds selectively to dog vocalizations, while a nearby area responds to the emotional cues of a voice, regardless of whether the voice came from a dog or from a human.

“Dogs use very similar brain mechanisms to process social and emotional information as humans do,” says Attila Andics, a researcher in the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, who led the new study. “This probably helps the dogs tune in to the feelings of their owners, and also probably helps humans tune in to the feelings of their dog.”

My question is, is this due to domestication and selective breeding of dogs and the evolutionary effect, or did this feature allow us to domesticate them, or somewhere in between?

And its amazing they trained these lovelies to be good in an MRI machine. It freaks me out each time I have to get one. Good boy!

FROM NATGEO ONLINE

reply to post by QuantumKat

*lol* I can interpret that dog's facial expression - and it is one very unhappy mutt!

Did we domesticate them or did they decide to leach off us.

Are dogs smarter than we are? No? Prove it!

I have seen so many examples of the little poodle being in charge and the Woman taking a subservient role that one must ask these questions.

Science is just so far behind what ordinary people know it is just silly.

Lastly, we have no idea how the brain works. All we can do is say, when this happens, this area lights up.

Hey, when I flick this switch, my kitchen light goes on. But what about the power station, sub stations and miles of power lines. No freaking idea! Science just is blissfully unaware of how truly ignorant they are.

P

reply to post by QuantumKat


That poor pooch!! Bet he's thinking, my treat better be a T-Bone!

Every time my puppy sees me noticing his new pee spot on the carpet, he catches on 100% of the time. He'll immediately try and play it cool...

As for this study, my money is on they never raised a dog..

reply to post by pheonix358

Lastly, we have no idea how the brain works. All we can do is say, when this happens, this area lights up.

No idea how the brain works? No idea?

Here is a series of lectures on how the brain works. I'm only a few lectures into this series but that's certainly not the impression I am getting. You should consider checking it out:

www.thegreatcourses.com...

If not that. Have you taken a course in neuroscience?

That said I think I agree with your sentiment. It's obvious to me that mammals are sentient. Intelligent and emotional. I don't need science to verify that's true, but it would be useful to understand how it works.

Maigret
reply to post by QuantumKat

 

*lol* I can interpret that dog's facial expression - and it is one very unhappy mutt!

Haha, exactly my thoughts. At least now that they have a scan of this dogs brain they shouldn't need to subject another dog to this procedure... one would hope.

reply to post by Lucid Lunacy


Let me put a question to you.

Scientists have determined that a part of the brain is active when the dog hears a human voice. They conclude that this is where the brain does this.

Question, is this where the brain does this or is there a possibility that this is where those signals are transmitted to / received from the person's soul?

Based on the observations, both could be equally valid. Science however does not like the soul, so it just ignores it most of the time.

I stand by my original statement!

I will however grant you that science claims to know these things with just as much ego as in the past when blood letting was science fact and everyone believed in the treatment.

P

2 cents worth.

Dogs have both instinct and a soul.
Like us - but with more instict.

You just have to look into an interested dogs' eyes with a mutual want of a clear line of communique.
Then you learn to work together. It is born of mutual respect - the Dog has a leader & the Human has a trustworthy,
no questions asked - friend.

Both need to be on the same page ... same as people.

Choose your pets wisely ...

I believe they can detect emotion. I also believe that they have more emotion than a lot of people give them credit for.



I would say we domesticated each other in some ways. They can change us as much as we change them.

reply to post by QuantumKat


That breed of dog in the experiment is what I would call a very emotional and sensitive breed for the most part. Easy with their affections.

Wow...Dogs (and cats, and possibly a variety of other animals) can "detect emotion".

What a truly "breaking" news story. Sorry I have to be very sarcastic.

As someone raised in a household where we always had some pets, I learned from early on that for example
dogs (OBVIOUSLY....) cannot "understand" language but that dogs and other pets very well often know the meaning of what we "tell" them because of the emotions in *how* we tell them.

Or simply spoken: If I shout at a dog angrily because he peed on a rug, the dog exactly knows that I am in-fact angry (he knows because dogs can actually show guilt).....even if he doesn't understand the actual words.....in the same way as a pet can recognize other emotions, like joy, happiness or when I am happy with something the dog/cat did.

EVERY PET OWNER KNOWS THAT. And that's basically what the article says.

So...yes...pets have (and can recognize and share) emotions.

Existing thread here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...


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