Dogs' Brains Have Human-like "Voice Area"

sciencehabit writes "When you hear a friend's voice, you immediately picture her, even if you can't see her. And from the tone of her speech, you quickly gauge if she's happy or sad. You can do all of this because your human brain has a 'voice area.' Now, scientists using brain scanners and a crew of eager dogs have discovered that dog brains, too, have dedicated voice areas. The finding helps explain how canines can be so attuned to their owners' feelings."

Comments

Dogs are best

[cfalcon]

I love all these studies that constantly come out showing that dogs are, well, loving, loyal, and built to hang around humans. Of COURSE they are. Dogs are domesticated, and like, are the best thing ever.

I would like to see more studies about how flexible these relatively large changes are, and how fast they can occur. We all know about the Russion project to make "dogs out of foxes" by domesticating foxes by choosing them based on friendliness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

Do these little foxes have a section where they are mirroring the dogs? In other words, is this morphological change something that happens when an animal is domesticated into a pet, or are dogs just special because awwwww doggie?

Re:Dogs are best

[pushing-robot]

This study was the first to actually look for a "voice center" in a non-primate. It seems more likely a great many animals have one, much as it may disappoint exceptionalists.

Re:Dogs are best

[Anonymous Coward]

Because until very recently domesticated cats didn't interact directly with humans. Their job was pest control. Dogs on the other hand have had intimate relationships with humans for millennia, whether as working animals or pets, and have evolved to communicate and bond with us directly. That makes dogs exceptionally unique.

OTOH, just because they're so unique doesn't necessarily mean that any particular characteristic is unique among all other species. But all their traits in the aggregate make them uniquely symbiotic with humans.

Re:Dogs are best

[TapeCutter]

Precisely, cats were not so much "domesticated" as attracted to rodents that were attracted to human garbage. Dogs and humans often make inter-species "friendships" for mutual benefit, the Coyote and the Badger is just one such example. It's more a less a given that highly intelligent pack hunters such as humans and dogs would combine their natural hunting skills.

Proof dogs talk:

[Tablizer]

Here is an example conversation:

Me: "What's on top of the house?"

Dog: "Roof!"

Me: "Who's the most famous baseball player?"

Dog: "Ruth!"

Me: "How does sand-paper feel?"

Dog: "Rough!"

3 out 3!

Re:Proof dogs talk:

[Frohboy]

I personally prefer the version where a guy is showing his friend his new talking dog.

New dog owner: Hey Sparky, what's on top of the house?
Sparky: Roof!

New dog owner: Hey Sparky, how does sandpaper feel?
Sparky: Rough!

New dog owner: Hey Sparky, who was the best baseball player of all time?
Sparky: Ruth!

Friend: Come on, you expect me to believe this bullshit?

Sparky: What? You think I should have gone with DiMaggio?

It goes both way

[tomhath]

If you've been around dogs much you can get a pretty good idea of their emotional state by their vocalizations. Not just the obvious growl or excited yipping, even straight barks have an inflection that tells you a lot.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that an animal which can vocalize emotion has a brain that can pick it up as well

also

[Charliemopps]

My dogs "fart area" of the brain is very similar to a humans.

Dog smarts

[Strange Ranger]

We've had carefully selected Golden Retrievers in our extended family for 30 years. For a point of reference this is a breed that's ranked #5 in intelligence compared to all breeds. Our family dog is amazingly human-like, even after carefully trying not to anthropomorphize him and our feelings about him.
 
He has a vocabulary of about 50 words. He understands short sentences, or at least enough words in them to understand what we mean. "Go upstairs and find your ball", "Hey I put food in your bowl", "Go see your mom" (since he's an adopted pet we're his adoptive parents, dogs are not things to own). He responds like a human. He can practically tell you a whole story with his facial expressions. He can roll his eyes sort of by looking at the ceiling and making a face when he thinks we're being ridiculous, and it's different than a similar face when he thinks we're being obtuse. He even has a favorite movie, Snow Dogs. He pays close attention to the dogs and has done the eyeroll to the ceiling thing when the humans start making out. He cracks us up daily.
 
We've all seen a dog lift an eyebrow and tilt their head to say "what the heck are you talking about?" Tip of the iceberg. When you have a really smart one for a decade it's like having a furry kid in the family. A very well behaved one, but there you go.
 
I sort of feel sorry for people who never get to be "dog people", call a dog "it" and think the rest of us are crazy and just anthropomorphizing our pet. Most of us "dog people" don't need these studies to tell us anything. But I'm still glad they're studying.