- A study published in the journal iScience has discovered that dogs can distinguish between happy human faces and negative expressions such as fear, anger, and sadness.
- Images of happy faces lit up the temporal cortex and caudate nucleus in dogs' brains, regions associated with higher cognitive and reward processing, respectively.
- Meanwhile, a whole brain scan analysis revealed distinct patterns of activity that separated fear from anger and sadness, providing evidence that dogs can distinguish between certain negative facial expressions.
- Senior author Laura Cuaya of the University of Vienna said: “They [dogs] followed a very different evolutionary path, yet through domestication, they developed the social abilities needed to understand and cooperate with us.”
- The study involved pet dogs from loving families, meaning dogs from different social backgrounds may process human facial cues differently.
IN FULL
