How Dogs Read Our Moods: Emotion Detector Found In Fido's Brain

[ashling]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/21/280640267/how-dogs-read-our-moods-emotion-detector-found-in-fidos-brain?utm_content=buffer2af65&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer



Our four-legged friends have a little patch of their brain devoted to deciphering emotions in human and dog voices, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

And the neural circuitry acts surprisingly like the voice-detection device found in people's brains. The happier the barks or giggles, the more that brain region lights up. The sadder the growls or whines, the less it responds.

"It's the first step to understanding how dogs can be so attuned to their owner's feelings," says Attila Andics, a neurobiologist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology in Budapest, who led the study.











==================

They were going to study cats, but they couldn't get them off of the keyboard

[hunter]

1. My dogs have always been much better at this than I am.

I never know if anyone loves me or hates me until they punch me in the face or kiss me.

On the advice of a dog I can usually tell.

[hobbit709]

2. I don't trust anyone my dog doesn't trust.

[UTUSN]

3. So now we know that our baby dogs are smarter than "scientists" which we already knew n/t