Science

More desired bone. Scientists have found out how much dogs love their owners

If doubts about pet love still haunt you, new research will dispel them.

It would seem that there is no doubt that dogs love their owners – what else can all these licks and tail wagging mean? However, scientists decided to dispel the last doubts by scientifically proving how much our pets love us, writes Live Science .

According to Arizona State University psychology professor and Canine University director Clive Wynn, he is absolutely convinced that “our dogs love us.” However, Newton Gregory Burns, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Georgia, went further and decided not to limit himself to words, but to study the canine brain.

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After the death of one of his favorite dogs, he decided to do some research. To do this, he initially taught his adopted dog Callie and other dogs involved in the experiment to calmly tolerate noise inside the MRI chamber, and then analyzed their brain activity.

During the study, he exposed dogs to a variety of odors, including familiar and unfamiliar people and dogs. The scientist found that all 12 animals participating in the study activated the olfactory zone of the brain, where they were offered things of this or that person, animal. However, the most curious thing happened when they were allowed to smell the things of the owners – at that moment the caudate nucleus lit up, an area that is associated with higher-level mental processes, for example:

  • emotions;
  • motivation;
  • remuneration;
  • romantic feelings.

The results of this study were published back in 2015. The following year, an additional study was conducted with 15 dogs. Then Burns found that 86% of the recipients showed a similar or higher level of caudate activation in response to praise than to food.

In the new study, Wynn and colleagues also found that pets tend to prefer their pets to food. To do this, they conducted an experiment: scientists placed a bowl of food and the owner, who had just returned from work, at a distance of 2 meters from the pets, and then the owner began to gradually move away. It turned out that in 8 out of 10 cases, the dogs preferred the owner’s food.

Another confirmation of the boundless love of pets was the research of Takefumi Kikusui from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Azabu University in Japan. She and her colleagues found that dogs were able to shed tears during a reunion with their owner after a long absence.

Inspired by the stories of dogs digging up their owners after the bombings of London during World War II, Wynn and colleagues conducted another experiment involving 60 dogs and their owners. The researchers asked pet owners to climb into boxes and pretend they were in trouble. The results of the study indicate that 1 out of 3 hastened to the aid of his owner and “rescued” him.

At the same time, the researchers warn that people need to understand that it’s not about them at all, but about their pets. The fact is, dogs are born with a remarkable ability to form strong emotional bonds with the different species they meet during the first three months of their lives.

Previously , Focus wrote that scientists tested the intelligence of 13 dog breeds and made a rating .

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