[Wasagdu] dog understand you

[Becky Frankeberger]

Scientists have found evidence to support what many dog owners have long
believed: man's best friend really does understand some of what we're
saying.

Researchers in Hungary scanned the brains of dogs as they were listening to
their trainer speaking to determine which parts of the brain they were
using.

 They found that dogs processed words with the left hemisphere, while
 intonation was processed with the right hemisphere - just like humans.

 What's more, the dogs only registered that they were being praised if the
 words and intonation were positive; meaningless words spoken in an
 encouraging voice, or meaningful words in a neutral tone, didn't have the
 same effect.

 "Dog brains care about both what we say and how we say it," said lead
 researcher Attila Andics, a neuroscientist at Eotvos Lorand University in
 Budapest.

 "Praise can work as a reward only if both word meaning and intonation
 match."

 Related: My dog and I retire after six years of pet therapy Andics said the
 findings suggest that the mental ability to process language evolved
earlier
 than previously believed and that what sets humans apart from other species
 is the invention of words.

 "The neural capacities to process words that were thought by many to be
 uniquely human are actually shared with other species," he said. "This
 suggests that the big change that made humans able to start using words was
 not a big change in neural capacity."

 While other species probably also have the mental ability to understand
 language like dogs do, their lack of interest in human speech makes it
 difficult to test, said Andics.

 Dogs, on the other hand, have socialized with humans for thousands of
years,
 meaning they are more attentive to what people say to them and how.

 The study was published in the journal Science.

 Andics also noted that all of the dogs were awake, unrestrained and happy
 during the tests. "They participated voluntarily," he said.

 __._,_.___
 Becky Frankeberger
 Butterfly Knitting
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