A new study used 12 different breeds of dogs that were trained by their owners for several months to distinguish two objects . Once the dogs demonstrated that they could choose the correct object each time, the researchers used an fMRI scanner to measure brain activity. The scan showed different brain patterns in the dogs when they heard words they had heard before, compared to completely new words. The Emory University research team says it's an important step in understanding how dogs process language.
The research has been published in Frontiers in Neuroscience . “We know that dogs have the ability to process at least some aspects of human language , as they can learn to follow verbal commands. They appear to have a neural representation for the meaning of the words they have been taught , beyond a low-level Pavlovian response, "Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University, told Science Alert .
