Dogs may be able to distinguish different speech patterns, study finds
Dogs could be able to tell the difference between languages and speech patterns, a study has revealed.
Scientists from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary discovered that dogs have the ability to distinguish between languages, after testing 18 adult family dogs trained previously to remain still inside an MRI scanner.
The study used speech samples from Hungarian and Spanish, including recording of the XXI chapter of The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry read by two different native, female speakers, with similar timbre, and vocal characteristics (see below), one in each language.
Hungarian was the language spoken in the environment of 16 dogs, Spanish of two dogs (familiar language); the other language was unfamiliar to all dogs.
The text, as well as the speakers were unknown to all dogs and the text was recorded with what the study described as a “lively, engaging intonation”.
The results indicated that the dogs’ brains displayed different activity patterns depending on whether a familiar or unfamiliar language was spoken, suggesting they could differentiate between the languages.
The study’s Author Laura V. Cuaya said she was inspired by her own dog Kun-Kun, when she moved to Hungary from Mexico a few years ago, and began wondering whether her dog had “noticed that people in Budapest spoke a different language, Hungarian”.
“This study showed for the first time that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages,” Attila Andics, senior author of the study said.
“It is exciting, because it reveals that the capacity to learn about the regularities of a language is not uniquely human. Still, we do not know whether this capacity is dogs’ specialty, or general among non-human species.
“Indeed, it is possible that the brain changes from the tens of thousand years that dogs have been living with humans have made them better language listeners, but this is not necessarily the case. Future studies will have to find this out.”
