Do you ever feel that your dog, and your dog alone, truly gets you?
Think about it: you’re having a bad day, and your dog comes and lies on your feet, or lays his head on your lap, looking at you with those big puppy-dog eyes.
In that moment, you feel that your dog is showing you more empathy than most humans do.
But are you and your dog really connected, or is this just the desperate thinking of the lonely human mind?
Well there is good news. A research team led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have discovered that there is a kind of synchronising that happens between a dog and a human in those very moments, when they are looking deep into one another’s eyes.
This process, known as ‘neural coupling’ is something that has been understood between humans for some time. It is what happens when you look across the room at a friend and catch their eye with a little smile, both knowing what the other is thinking. It is the same thing that happens when you have a deep conversation with your partner, knowing that there is empathy deep within their heart, as they look into your eyes.
This is a social behavior that encourages teamwork: something that has been important to our species (and other species too) since the days we lived in cave tribes that needed to work together, live together, and love together in order to survive.
But until now it was not known that neural coupling between different species was possible.
Of course, dogs have long been considered ‘man’s best friend’ and they are this way for a reason. We have domesticated animals over millennia, with plenty of evidence that they have adapted to live alongside us too. Take how a cat’s mew is supposed to mimic a the tone of a human baby crying, attracting our attention and affections. Consider also how our dogs consider us the leader of their pack, and follow us around accordingly and obediently.
However this new study suggests that dogs have learned to read and respond to human emotions.
The research, which was recently published in the academic journal Advanced Science used electrodes to detect neural signals in the humans and the dogs being studied.
The dogs and the humans worked together over a period of five days, and over that time the researchers found increasing synchronicity between the signals in their brains. In particular, the researchers explain that when the dogs were being stroked by the humans, and they were looking into each others’ eyes, their brain activity showed strong similarities in their patterns:
“The strength of the synchronization increases with growing familiarity of the human–dog dyad over five days, and the information flow analysis suggests that the human is the leader while the dog is the follower during human–dog interactions.”
So what does this mean?
Well it means firstly that you’re not imagining it when you think that your dog understands and empathises when you’re having a bad day. It also suggests that there is a good connection between the two of you.
In a scientific sense, it could also help with our knowledge of dog training – both for pets, and for service and working dogs.
But most of all, it shows the deep bond that has been developed between humans and dogs over generations.
This study suggests that the dog truly is man’s best friend.
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