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Dogs can tell when humans are happy, sad or angry, study shows
Researchers found that 12 trained dogs showed a reward-network response to smiles and separate brain patterns for fear, anger and sadness.
- Researchers published a study in the journal iScience finding that canine brains possess specialized neural networks to distinguish human facial expressions beyond simple positive or negative valences.
- University of Vienna neuroscientists Laura Cuaya and Raúl Hernández-Pérez trained 14 dogs to lie still inside MRI scanners while viewing human faces, enabling real-time brain activity measurement without sedation.
- Happy human faces selectively activated the temporal cortex and caudate nucleus, a reward center, suggesting that smiles carry intrinsic motivational value for dogs similar to treats.
- Distinct neural signatures emerged when dogs viewed negative expressions, with researchers identifying that canine brains differentiate fear from anger and sadness rather than lumping all negative moods together.
- Thousands of years of domestication have wired the canine brain to decode subtle human signals, providing direct evidence that dogs evolved sophisticated social skills through their 14,000-year shared history with humans.
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The Viennese neuroscientist Raul Hernandez investigated the brains of dogs. And for the first time he showed that the animals distinguish human feelings much more precisely than previously thought.
·Hamburg, Germany
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Total News Sources109
Leaning Left22Leaning Right22Center40Last UpdatedBias Distribution48% Center
Bias Distribution
- 48% of the sources are Center
48% Center
L 26%
C 48%
R 26%
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