Research shows how dogs can recognize human speech in other languages as well as from other sounds?
The following written content from Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC
We live in a sea of constant sounds and noises. Some are meaningful and some are not. However, it seems as though we have a remarkable ability to discriminate human speech from all of those other sounds in our environment. We may not understand the specific language which is being spoken, but we do recognize that it is some sort of language. For example, in my own experience, even though I do not speak Russian, Italian, or Mandarin Chinese,
I can usually quickly identify each of these spoken languages when I hear them, despite that I cannot interpret what is actually being said. Some researchers have claimed that our brains are uniquely tuned to human languages, however some new research coming out of Budapest Hungary, suggests that dogs also may have the ability to detect speech and recognize differences between languages.
Familiar and Unfamiliar Languages
Laura V. Cuaya, first author of this study explains what motivated her to begin this new research in this way:
“Some years ago I moved from Mexico to Hungary to join the Neuroethology of Communication Lab at Eötvös Loránd University. My dog, Kun-kun [a border collie], came with me. Before, I had only talked to him in Spanish. So I was wondering whether Kun-kun noticed that people in Budapest spoke a different language, Hungarian. We know that people, even preverbal human infants, notice the difference. But maybe dogs do not bother. After all, we never draw our dogs’ attention to how a specific language sounds.”
The team of researchers decided to answer her question by looking at how the dog’s brain responds to various language inputs. For this purpose, the dogs were given fMRI brain scans. As opposed to the standard MRI scan, which looks at the structure of the brain, the fMRI looks at the changes in the activity of regions of the brain when certain events occur. Giving an fMRI scan to a dog is difficult, not only because it requires a dog to remain motionless in a confined space for a period of time, but also because the MRI machines make a lot of noise, loud clanks, bangs, and grinding gear sounds. Normally such noises might startle or frighten a dog and cause him to move, or even to try to run away. Extensive training is needed to be able to test a dog in this equipment, and for the dog to remain stationary during the procedure.
Recognizing Language When Dogs Hear It
The results showed that the dogs could certainly distinguish between speech and non-speech. Looking at the brain scans the researchers found distinct activity patterns for each in the dogs’ primary auditory cortex. This distinction was there independently from whether the particular non-language auditory excerpt was a jumble of sounds from the familiar or the unfamiliar language. Dogs, like humans, can extract and recognize human speech and language sounds from all of the other sounds in their environment.
But can dogs recognize the difference between languages? Read more from Psychology Today.
