Get ready for a tail-wagging discovery!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Ever wonder if your dog actually understands you? Well, Marianna Boros and researchers in Budapest, Hungary do too!
They put twenty-seven pups to the test using a wearable E-E-G brain wave sensor. Researchers then showed the dogs an object and said the object’s name.
Then – plot twist! – sometimes they used the wrong word to describe the object! Fourteen out of eighteen dogs’ brains lit up with confusion, just like yours would!
Turns out, your furry friend grasps more than you think – but when you say sit and they don’t, it’s not ‘cause they don’t understand… they just don’t care.
Reference: Boros, M., Magyari, L., Morvai, B., Hernández-Pérez, R., Dror, S., & Andics, A. (2024). Neural evidence for referential understanding of object words in dogs. Current biology : CB, 34(8), 1750–1754.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.029