A study published in Science Journalconducted by Hungarian researchers from the Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest have discovered that dogs understand what we mean when we talk to them. So yes, all those hours spent chatting to your dog (if you’re lucky enough to have a dog) is actually paying off.
According to the study, dogs are able to understand both what we say, and the tone in which we say it. According to lead researcher Attila Andics, ‘dogs brains, just like our brains, can separately process and also combine what we say and how we say it.’ The scientists discovered that when training the dogs in the study, the left side of their brains processed the meaning of the word, and the right side processed intonation – just like humans.
When the dog then detected a meaningful word (for example, a dogs favourite word: 'walkies') combined with a praising tone it activated the reward centre in their brains. So your dogs brain is actually more like yours than you’d think.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.