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dogs | Dogs can learn and distinguish different languages: this is how the study shows



Dogs are a family member for an increasing number of people. The relationship that humans have with these animals is very special and has led to many studies on them. It has recently been confirmed that not only do they understand what we say, but they are also able to distinguish when they are spoken to in their usual language or in a language they do not know.

Dogs differentiate between languages

he Dogs’ brains can detect speech And they show different patterns of activity when encountering known and unknown language, according to a study published in the journal NeuroImage. You can also keep the sound patterns you hear often and associate a certain number of words with their meaning.

Research conducted by Eötvös University in Hungary is, according to its authors, the first evidence of this The non-human brain can differentiate between two languages. Experts took brain images of 18 dogs as they listened to clips from “The Little Prince” in Spanish and Hungarian, which also witnessed this. The older the dog, the better His mind is between the known and the unknown language.

The origin of the research was the Kun Kun dog, which belonged to the study’s lead author, Laura Kwaia, who moved to Hungary after years living in Mexico, where the animal heard only Spanish. “I wondered if Kun Kun had noticed that the people of Budapest spoke another language.” Because people, even preverbal babies, have been known to tell the difference, he pointed out.

A group of eighteen dogs, including the researcher, were trained to remain immobile in a mental scan Where they listened to parts of the reading in both languages. All dogs heard only one of the two languages ​​from their owners, so they were able to compare a very familiar language with a completely unfamiliar one.

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Auditory and verbal regularities

The study adds that specific language patterns are found in a region of the brain called the secondary auditory cortex. Every language is characterized by a series of auditory regularity. Our findings indicate that dogs, during their lives with humans, pick up the auditory regularities of the language they are exposed to,” explained Raul Hernandez-Perez, a co-signatory of the study.

Knowing that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages, he said, is “exciting,” because it is so revealing The ability to recognize the regularities of language is not limited to humansalthough it is not known whether they are a canine specialty or if they are found in other species.

In addition to the readable portions of “The Little Prince,” the team had the animals listen to encoded versions of those same passages, which sound “quite unnatural,” Hernandez-Perez said, to verify If they discover the difference between speech and non-speech.

different brain activity

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By comparing brain responses, the researchers found distinct patterns of activity in the dogs’ primary auditory cortex, a distinction that held regardless of whether the stimuli came from a familiar or unfamiliar language.

He explained, “The canine brain, like the human brain, can distinguish between speech and non-speech. But the mechanism behind this ability to detect speech may be different from speech sensitivity in humans.” Speech, “Canine brains may detect”Just the nature of the sound“.

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