http://news.sciencemag.

org/brain-behavior/2014/02/how-dogs-know-what-youre-feeling 20 February 2014 12:00 pm

How !ogs "now #hat $ou%re &eeling

Borbala Ferenczy 'it. 'tay. 'can. Dogs' brain scans reveal vocal areas similar to those in human brains. When you hear a friends voice, you immediately picture her, even if you cant see her. And from the tone of her speech, you quickly gauge if shes happy or sad. You can do all of this because your human brain has a voice area.! "o#, scientists using brain scanners and a cre# of eager dogs have discovered that dog brains, too, have dedicated voice areas. $he finding helps e%plain ho# canines can be so attuned to their o#ners feelings. &ts absolutely brilliant, groundbreaking research,! says 'ascal (elin, a neuroscientist at the )niversity of *lasgo# in the )nited +ingdom, #ho #as part of the team that identified the voice areas in the human brain in ,---. $heyve made the first comparative study using nonhuman primates of the cerebral processing of voices, and theyve done it #ith a noninvasive technique by training dogs to lie in a scanner.! $he scientists behind the discovery had previously sho#n that humans can readily distinguish bet#een dogs happy and sad barks. Dogs and humans share a similar social environment,! says Attila Andics, a neuroscientist in a research group at the .ungarian Academy of /ciences at 01tv1s 2or3nd )niversity in (udapest and the lead author of the ne# study. /o #e #ondered if dogs also get some social information from human voices.! $o find out, Andics and his colleagues decided to scan the canine brain to see ho# it processes different types of sounds, including voices, barks, and natural noises. &n humans, the voice area is activated #hen #e hear others speak, helping us recogni4e a speakers identity and pick up on the emotional content in her voice. &f dogs had voice areas, it could mean that these abilities arent limited to humans and other primates. /o the team trained 55 dogs to lie motionless in a functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scanner, #hile #earing headphones to deliver the sounds and protect their ears. $hey loved doing this,! Andics says, adding that the pooches o#ners #ere there to re#ard them #ith treats and petting. $he scanner captured images of the dogs brain activity #hile they listened to nearly ,-- dog and human sounds,

including #hines, cries, playful barks, and laughs. $he scientists also scanned the brains of ,, human sub6ects #ho listened to the same set of sounds. (oth dogs and humans #ere a#ake during the scans. $he images revealed that dog brains have voice areas and that they process voices in the same #ay that human brains do, the team reports online today in Current Biology. And because these voice areas are found in similar locations in the brains of both dogs and humans, the scientists suggest that they likely evolved at least 5-- million years ago, #hen humans and dogs last shared a common ancestor, an insectivore. &ndeed, some think that brain areas for processing vocal sounds could be discovered in more species. /till, #hen voice areas #ere first discovered in humans, they #ere thought to be special and someho# tied specifically to the evolution of language. /o #hat are they doing in dog brains7! Andics asks. $he ans#er lies, he thinks, in #hat the scans also revealed8 /triking similarities in ho# dog and human brains process emotionally laden sounds. .appy sounds, such as an infants giggle, made the primary auditory corte% of both species light up more than did unhappy sounds, such as a mans harsh cough. &t sho#s that dogs and humans have similar brain mechanisms for processing the social meaning of sound,! Andics says, noting that other research has sho#n that dogs respond to the way #e say something rather than to what #e say.! $he similarity in auditory processing, he adds, helps e%plain #hy vocal communication bet#een the t#o species is so successful.! (ut there #ere differences, too. $he researchers discovered that in dogs, 9:; of their auditory brain regions respond more strongly to environmental sounds, such as a car engine, than to voices. &n humans, in contrast, a mere <; of their sound=sensitive brain regions lit up more for the nonvocal sounds. &t sho#s ho# very strongly attuned the human auditory corte% is to vocal sounds,! Andics says. &n dogs, its more heterogeneous.! Yet it is the similarity in ho# dogs and humans process the emotional information in voices that other researchers find most intriguing. $heyve confirmed #hat any dog o#ner kno#s>that their pooches are sensitive to ones tone of voice,! says ?ohn @ar4luff, a #ildlife biologist at the )niversity of Washington, /eattle. 0ven more important, he adds, is that the study confronts us #ith the reali4ation that our #onderful brain is in many #ays a product of our distant evolutionary past.!