Did you ever think that your dog understood what you were saying? A group of scientists discovered that the lomitos distinguish both the intonation and the words that we use when talking to them.
According to the study published in the journal Sciences, the brain of dogs processes the intonation and the words with which we address them in a similar way to how humans do.
Attila Andics, the head of the research, and his colleagues noted that domestication may have led to the development of brain structures responsible for processing auditory and linguistic information.
More recent research, in which Andics also participated, notes that dogs not only separate words and intonation, but follow the same steps as the human brain when processing them. That is, they use the oldest part of their brain for inflections, while the cortex handles language itself.
In this regard, Andics pointed out that this is important because they are animals that lack language; however, they can perfectly understand our words.
On the other hand, Terrence Deacon, a neuropathologist at the University of Berkeley, commented for National Geographic that it is probable that human language has evolved following these same patterns through the neural system until we develop our linguistic capacities.
Meanwhile, Andics added that, after spending around 10,000 years with humans, dogs make special use of these abilities to understand our emotions.
“That helps explain why they are such good companions for us,” concluded the researcher.
