Dogs use unique strategy to distinguish human words, study finds

A recent study conducted in Hungary and published this week in the journal Science has found that dogs use a strategy similar to infants to distinguish words within streams of human speech.

Researchers explained that dogs rely on listening for consonant sounds to identify the beginnings and ends of words, the same method used by young children.

The study involved 20 dogs and 20 humans, who listened to sequences of meaningless words following different patterns of consonants and vowels. Scientists collected EEG data to measure brain activity.

Results showed that both dogs and humans exhibited increased brain activity when hearing consonant-based patterns, even among dogs that were only exposed to speech later in life.

Attila Andics, a cognitive neuroscientist at Eötvös Loránd University and the study's author, noted that these findings provide evidence that dogs process speech in a way similar to humans, shedding light on language evolution and its effects on animal brains.

Francis Soubial, a professor of cognition at George Washington University, stated that dogs show remarkable attunement and interest in their surroundings, and that their experiences with humans shape their brains in ways similar to how experiences affect children.

Researchers questioned whether these abilities are the result of dogs' long domestication over 15,000 years or if they were present from the start, highlighting the importance of conducting similar studies on wolves.

Previous research has also shown that interaction between dogs and humans increases oxytocin levels in both, strengthening social bonds.

Although the new study is limited in scope, the researchers emphasized the need for further research to fully understand how these abilities develop in dogs.

Amritha Malikargun, a researcher at Harvard University, explained that the study's findings highlight the long and significant history of the human-dog relationship, and that domestication has shaped the brains of both species and enhanced their social and behavioral bonds.