A recent study has unveiled that dogs possess a sophisticated comprehension of certain words and their corresponding meanings, as evidenced by their brain activity recordings.
Conducted by Marianna Boros and her team at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, the study involved 18 dogs of various breeds, including Border collies, toy poodles, and Labrador retrievers.
The research unveiled that dogs possess a comprehension extending beyond basic commands like ‘sit’ and ‘fetch’.
The experiment procedure involved the owners selecting five familiar objects for their respective pets. During the trials, the owners would vocalize the name of one of these objects and subsequently present either the named object or an alternative item to their dog.
Utilizing electroencephalography (EEG), the researchers monitored the brainwave patterns of each dog. Their objective was to discern any discrepancies in brain activity when the spoken word by the owner corresponded to a specific object, such as a “ball”, but the displayed item differed, such as presenting a stick instead.
Marianna Boros elucidated, “The idea was that if dogs understand the meaning of the words, their brain responses will differ between the presentation of matching and mismatching objects.”
The findings revealed distinct EEG signals when the presented objects did not align with the spoken words. Notably, a more pronounced effect on dogs was observed for words with which they were more familiar.
Boros emphasized, “The most important realisation of this study is not only that non-humans are capable of understanding words referentially, but this capacity seems to be generally present in dogs as well. This study demonstrates that dogs may understand more than they show.”
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