Like humans, dogs have the capacity to link words to mental images or ideas in their minds, researchers have recently found.
Researchers in Hungary and Norway made the discovery while researching brain activity in dogs.
They had dog owners show their pets toys while playing recordings referencing each toy. Sometimes the toys they held matched the words the dogs heard. Other times, the toys were different from the words spoken.
The dogs’ brains responded differently when the owner said a toy name but held up a different object.
“In the case of the different toys, the response wave is bigger than the response wave for the matching object,” said Marianna Boros, a co-lead author on the study and postdoctoral researcher at Eötvös Loránd University’s Neuroethology of Communication Lab in Hungary.
“This is something that has been also observed in humans … This is the first time we were able to demonstrate something similar in a nonhuman mammal,” she said.
She added that the team invited dogs whose owners said the animals know at least three object names. The study’s sample also included a dog who knew over 230 object names.
