Quite a lot has been talked about doggy intelligence in recent years. But regardless of what the studies say, there is something that anyone who has had a canine friend can attest: the dogs understand. Now, research published in the journal Frontiers of Neuroscience has found that in addition to emotions, dogs seem to understand words.

Brains in the fMRI

A study conducted by American neuroscientists analyzed dogs within an fMRI that measures brain activity. The research found different brain patterns in the dogs when they heard words they had heard before, compared to completely new words.

Obviously, that is not enough to suggest that dogs are actually imagining a plate of food when they hear the words “eat!”; but it does indicate that some type of recognition is taking place, based on the word itself.

The research team says it is an important step in understanding how dogs process language, in particular, because it uses the data collected from dogs rather than the owner’s observations, which may be subjective.

“We know that dogs have the ability to process at least some aspects of human language because they can learn to follow verbal commands,” says Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta (USA). “Previous research, however, suggests that dogs can rely on many other signals to follow a verbal command, such as the look, gestures and even the emotional expressions of their owners.”