Dogs’ brains are sensitive to the familiar high-pitched “cute” voice tone that adult humans, especially women, use to talk to babies, according to a new study.
The research, published recently in the journal Communications Biology, found “exciting similarities” between infant and dog brains during the processing of speech with such a high-pitched tone feature.
Humans tend to speak with a specific speech style characterised by exaggerated prosody, or patterns of stress and intonation in a language, when communicating with individuals having limited language competence.
Such speech has previously been found to be very important for the healthy cognitive, social and language development of children, who are also tuned to such a high-pitched voice.
But researchers, including those from the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, hoped to assess whether dog brains are also sensitive to this way of communication.
In the study, conscious family dogs were made to listen to dog, infant and adult-directed speech recorded from 12 women and men in real-life interactions.
As the dogs listened, their brain activities were measured using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan.
The study found the sound-processing regions of the dogs’ brains responded more to dog- and infant-directed than adult-directed speech.
This marked the first neurological evidence that dog brains are tuned to speech directed specifically at them.
“Studying how dog brains process dog-directed speech is exciting, because it can help us understand how exaggerated prosody contributes to efficient speech processing in a nonhuman species skilled at relying on different speech cues,” explained Anna Gergely, co-first author of the study.
Scientists also found dog- and infant-directed speech sensitivity of dog brains was more pronounced when the speakers were women, and was affected by voice pitch and its variation.
These findings suggest the way we speak to dogs matters, and that their brain is specifically sensitive to the higher-pitched voice tone typical to the female voice.
“Remarkably, the voice tone patterns characterizing women’s dog-directed speech are not typically used in dog-dog communication – our results may thus serve evidence for a neural preference that dogs developed during their domestication,” said Anna Gábor, co-first author of the study.
“Dog brains’ increased sensitivity to dog-directed speech spoken by women specifically may be due to the fact that women more often speak to dogs with exaggerated prosody than men,” Dr Gabor said.
She literally devoured worms and gave birth without eating for a month, demonstrating her amazing will to care for and protect her babies in spite of her own agony.
The owner died more than a month ago. The son also abandoned her; we assume she was ready to give birth since the babies if they reach a month are many. She gave birth there and went a month without eating.
We don’t know how she survived, or how those two tiny soldiers survived. Caught on her mother’s breast, without a drop of milk and suffering from severe anemia, she was physically consumed by worms. Look how frantic she was when she was released, despite the fact that her infirmity makes it difficult for her to move.
Last night, we went looking for her. You can only image how bad the stench was all over her rotten flesh. She was withering to death.
We administered first aid, medicated, administered saline, sanitized, and removed any probable worms. She also let him use the mattress. She refused to eat or drink. We didn’t know if the larger insect had impacted her throat or perforated the jaw, stopping her from doing it.
She has additional tiny bugs on her gum, pear, hand, and hip, as well as a scab on her hip… Her situation is dreadful.We looked after babies who, thankfully, did not have bugs. They simply begin eating. We applied flea powder to them and dewormed them.
This story of survival and compassion reminds us of the power of kindness even in the face of unthinkable hardship.
Together we can make a difference nurturing life and hope where it is needed most.
Let us share this story and Inspire others to act with compassion for every living being deserves a chance at a better tomorrow.
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