The authors of the study say this is the first time it has been shown that a non-human brain can differentiate between two languages (Pixabay).
A new brain-imaging study has revealed that dogs are capable of recognizing words and distinguishing between different languages.
Researchers in Hungary found that animals show different patterns of brain activity when listening to a familiar versus an unfamiliar language.
According to the study’s authors, this is the first time it has been discovered that a non-human brain can tell two languages apart.
Eighteen dogs were trained to lie still in a brain-scanning machine. They were then played excerpts from the novel The Little Prince in both Hungarian and Spanish.
All the dogs involved in the research had, before the experiment, heard only one of the two languages from their owners.
The dogs were also played mixed excerpts to see whether they could clearly distinguish between real words and scrambled or unclear speech.
All the dogs had heard only one of the two languages from their owners prior to the experiment (Pixabay).
When researchers compared the responses to words versus unclear material, they found different types of activity occurring in the dogs’ brains.
In particular, they discovered distinct activity in the primary auditory regions of the dogs’ brains.
This difference was independent of whether the stimuli came from a familiar or unfamiliar language. However, no evidence was found that the dogs’ brains preferred real words over unclear speech.
The study showed that, in addition to recognizing speech or spoken words, dogs’ brains can also distinguish between Spanish and Hungarian.
Language-related activity patterns were also found in another auditory processing region of the brain. The researchers were surprised to learn that the older the dog, the better its brain was at distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar languages.
One of the study’s authors, Laura Cuaya, also included her own dog, named Kun-Kun, in the research.
She said:
“A few years ago, I moved from Mexico to Hungary to work on my post-doctoral research at the Neuroethology of Communication Lab in the Department of Animal Research at Eötvös Loránd University. My dog, Kun-Kun, came with me. Before that, I had only spoken Spanish with him. So I was curious whether Kun-Kun noticed the difference between people in Budapest who spoke a different language—Hungarian.”
She added:
“We know that people, even pre-verbal human infants, can detect such differences. But perhaps dogs don’t care. We never draw our dogs’ attention to what a specific language sounds like. To find out, we planned a brain-imaging study.”
Laura Cuaya explained:
“Kun-Kun and 17 other dogs were trained to remain still in a brain scanner, where we played them excerpts from The Little Prince in Spanish and Hungarian. All the dogs had heard only one of the two languages from their owners, allowing us to compare a highly familiar language with a completely unfamiliar one.”
“We also played the dogs mixed excerpts, which sounded entirely unnatural. This was done to determine whether they could clearly distinguish between clearly spoken and unclear sentences.”
Co-author Raúl Hernández-Pérez added:
“A dog’s brain, like the human brain, can distinguish between words and unclear speech, but the underlying mechanism may differ from humans’ sensitivity to speech or words. Human brains are particularly sensitive to spoken words, whereas a dog’s brain may simply recognize the naturalness of the sound.”
The study found that, beyond recognizing spoken words, dogs’ brains can also differentiate between Spanish and Hungarian (Pixabay).
He further said:
“Each language has its own characteristic type of auditory regularity. Our results suggest that dogs, while living with humans, learn the auditory regularities of the language they are exposed to.”
According to senior author Attila Andics:
“This research has shown for the first time that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages. This is interesting because it suggests that the ability to learn about language comprehension is not unique to humans.”
“However, we do not know whether this ability is specific to dogs or common among non-human species. It is possible that over tens of thousands of years, the brains of dogs living with humans have changed, making them better listeners of language—but this is not certain. Future studies will need to find out.”
Laura Cuaya added:
“If you’re wondering how Kun-Kun is doing after moving to Budapest, he is just as happy as he was in Mexico City—he saw snow for the first time and loves swimming in the Danube River. We hope that he and his friends will continue to help us uncover how the perception of spoken languages has evolved.”
The research was conducted by scientists from the Department of Animal Research at Eötvös Loránd University and was published in NeuroImage.