[Wasagdu] dog understand you

[debby]

This is a great article, Becky. I truly believe that we don't give dogs enough credit.    Debby and Nova

On Aug 31, 2016 8:47 AM, Becky Frankeberger via WASAGDU <wasagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> 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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> 360-426-8389 
> becky at butterflyKnitting.com 
>
> www.butterflyknitting.com 
>
>
>
>
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