Global News Report

Dogs can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar human languages

Two of the dogs from the experiment next to the MRI machine. (Photo credit: Eniko Kubinyi)

If you move to a new country with a different language and bring the family dog ​​with you, your pet will likely have a hard time understanding commands from local residents, according to new study examining how dogs’ brains respond to different languages.

MRI scans showed that dogs’ brains can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar languages, making them the first known and so far only non-human animals capable of differentiating between human languages.

The new study, published online in the journal NeuroImage on December 12, 2021, was conceived by lead author Laura Cuaya, a neurobiologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary who recently moved from Mexico to Budapest with her dog Kun-kun is.

Related: 10 things you didn’t know about dogs

The brain of one of the dogs in the experiment is scanned in an MRI machine. (Photo credit: Eniko Kubinyi)

“We found that people in Budapest were very friendly to dogs and would often approach and talk to Kun-kun,” Cuaya told Live Science. “Kun-kun usually pays a lot of attention to people, so I wondered if he noticed that people in Budapest speak a different language.”

Cuaya and her team trained 18 dogs, including Kun-kun, to lie motionless in an MRI machine so the researchers could scan their brains. While the dogs were being scanned, the researchers played three different recordings for the canines: a Spanish reading from the famous children’s book “The Little Prince”; a Hungarian reading from the same book; and a series of human noises that didn’t resemble speech at all. All dogs were exposed to only one of the two languages, which meant that one was familiar and the other was unfamiliar.

The brain scans suggested that the dogs could not only clearly distinguish between language and non-language, but also responded differently to known and unknown languages, according to a statement by the researchers.

The researchers suspect that the primary auditory cortex and secondary auditory cortex in the canine brain (both located within the temporal cortex, which sits roughly at ear level in the skull) allow dogs to process speech in two steps called “hierarchy processing” ” are known. said Cuaya. “The primary auditory cortex knows whether a sound is speech or not,” she said. “Then the secondary auditory cortex distinguishes between a familiar and an unfamiliar language.”

During the experiments, the researchers also found that older dogs showed more activity in the brain’s secondary auditory cortex, suggesting that they were better able to differentiate between known and unfamiliar languages ​​than younger dogs. “I think that’s the main reason [that older dogs are better at differentiating languages] is the extent to which they are exposed to language, “said Cuaya.” Older dogs had more opportunities to listen to people speak.

The researchers suspect that dogs aren’t the only animals that can distinguish human languages. “The brain is extremely good at picking up patterns, and each language has a number of sounds and patterns that set them apart,” said Cuaya. “After a little training, the brains of many animals should be able to recognize these patterns.”

What makes dogs unique, however, is that they don’t need to be trained to distinguish between human languages. “Their brains recognized the difference spontaneously, perhaps because of the domestication process,” said Cuaya. “While many species can distinguish between human languages, dogs are one of the few interested in hearing us.”

Previous research has shown that dogs can even tell when people are lying to them, Live Science previously reported.

Cuaya was “a little surprised” by the results of the study, but she also thinks a lot of people underestimate how keen our dog friends can be.

“My experience with dogs has shown me that they are constantly paying attention to their social world and everything that happens around them,” said Cuaya. “I think dogs know more about us than we imagine.”

Originally published on Live Science.

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