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Dog's brains appear to respond to human emotional vocal signals in the same regions and in the same way as human brains, to no one's surprise who has ever owned a dog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26276660
Researchers in Hungary took MRIs of eleven pet dogs and twenty-two human volunteers as they listened to various environmental, human vocal, and dog sounds.
The dogs, which judging from the photo in the article appear to be border collies and golden retrievers, were trained through massive amounts of positive reinforcement to hold perfectly still for up to eight minutes at a time to allow the MRIs. Researchers were surprised at how cooperative the dogs were.
The dogs responded to emotionally charged human sounds, such as crying and laughter, with brain activity similar to humans', although not as strongly as they reacted to dog noises.
It is the first comparative neuroimaging study done on humans and non-primates, and it suggests (although the BBC article breathes not a word of it) that voice areas of the brain may have evolved much earlier than previously thought.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26276660
Researchers in Hungary took MRIs of eleven pet dogs and twenty-two human volunteers as they listened to various environmental, human vocal, and dog sounds.
The dogs, which judging from the photo in the article appear to be border collies and golden retrievers, were trained through massive amounts of positive reinforcement to hold perfectly still for up to eight minutes at a time to allow the MRIs. Researchers were surprised at how cooperative the dogs were.
The dogs responded to emotionally charged human sounds, such as crying and laughter, with brain activity similar to humans', although not as strongly as they reacted to dog noises.
It is the first comparative neuroimaging study done on humans and non-primates, and it suggests (although the BBC article breathes not a word of it) that voice areas of the brain may have evolved much earlier than previously thought.