Can dogs not only follow human language commands, but also distinguish different human languages?

All things in the world have spirits, and life is the most precious thing on earth.

The complex species make this planet colorful, and among the many animals, the bond between dogs and humans seems to be deeper. As early as the era of eating raw meat and drinking blood, humans domesticated wolves into dogs for their own use. Today, dogs still contribute their strength to humans in many industries. And more people regard dogs as pets and keep them at home. So why can dogs stand out among so many animals and get closer and closer to humans? The answer to this question is composed of many factors, and now there is a new factor added to the answer, that is, dogs are the only known non-human animals that can distinguish different human languages. What does it mean? Dogs can understand human language? That's not what it means.

We all know that dogs can follow human verbal commands after training, but this skill is not unique to dogs.

As long as they are trained, many animals can execute human language commands, such as pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock, as well as various small domestic animals, and even birds. However, being able to execute human language commands does not mean being able to distinguish different human languages. In fact, for most animals, they cannot even distinguish between language and non-language sounds. For example, we can train a pig to run to the food bowl when it hears the word "eat", and we can also replace the two words "eat" with a whistle. For pigs, there is no difference between "eat" and a whistle. They are just a sound signal, representing a fixed command.

Dogs are different from other animals. They can not only distinguish between language and non-verbal sounds, but can even distinguish between different human languages.

This is not just a casual remark, but a conclusion drawn by scientists through experimental research. The research results have been published in the academic journal Neurolmage. The lead researcher leading the study is Laura Cuaya, who has a border collie named Kun-kun. At first, Laura Cuaya lived with his dog in Mexico, and Laura Cuaya always used Spanish to talk to Kun-kun. Later, due to a change in work, Laura Cuaya moved to Budapest, Hungary with his dog. Here, the neighbors all speak Hungarian, so naturally, when the neighbors talk to Kun-kun, they also speak Hungarian.

Over time, Kun-kun could not only follow his owner's Spanish instructions, but also respond to the Hungarian words of his neighbors.

So, Laura Cuaya began to wonder whether his dog could distinguish the difference between the two languages, or just regard them as sound signals with the same meaning? In the end, in order to find the answer, Laura Cuaya formed a research team and decided to conduct a systematic study. Laura Cuaya and his research team recruited 18 dogs of different species and trained them for a long time so that they could stay still in the MRI scanner for a long time. After the experiment began, the researchers played the reading recording of "The Little Prince" to the dogs, first in Spanish, then in Hungarian, and finally in meaningless non-verbal sounds.

The final results of the experiment confirmed Laura Cuaya's conjecture that the dog's brain reacted differently when it heard different languages.

This situation is unique to dogs among the currently known animals. When other animals hear different languages ​​and non-language sounds, the brain reactions are no different, but dogs can not only distinguish between language and non-language, but also distinguish between different types of language. Why is this so? Researchers believe that in the dog's brain, the processing of sound is divided into two layers. The primary auditory cortex is responsible for distinguishing whether the sound heard is language, while the secondary auditory cortex is responsible for distinguishing the type of language. The study also found that the dog's ability to distinguish different languages ​​is not closely related to breed, but is more closely related to age.

The older the dogs, the better they were at distinguishing between the languages, probably because they had more experience with language.

It seems that dogs are indeed different from other animals, but don't misinterpret the meaning of this study. This study only proves that dogs can distinguish between language and non-language sounds, and can distinguish between different types of language. It does not mean that dogs can understand human language and the inner meaning of human language. An interesting thing is that during the study, the researchers also checked the cranial nerve index of dogs of various types. The border collie, which has always been known for its intelligence, is indeed far ahead, with a cranial nerve index of 70588, but it is not the highest among the dogs participating in the experiment. The dog with the highest cranial nerve index is a multi-generational mixed dog of unknown species, with a cranial nerve index of 77899.

For more information, please follow the official account: sunmonarch