Brain Scans Finally Prove That Dogs Choose Humans As Their Family Over Their Own Breed

Dogs love their human friends as much as we love our pooches. The phrase "a dog is a man's best friend" has been used, since time immemorial, to exemplify the relationship the two share. And now justifying this claim, and proving exactly why dogs choose humans as their own over other dogs, is a new study that scanned the dogs' brains with MRI machines.

Borbala Ferenczy

Scientists who study animal cognition at Emory University, trained dogs to lie still while their brains could be mapped. Since dogs navigate the world through their noses, they were presented with smells of humans and other dogs (known and unknown), to gain an insight into how exactly humans excite these mutts more than their own canine family.

Borbala Ferenczy

1. Dogs and smells

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Aroma of their owners activate the very 'reward center' of the dogs' brains, also known as the caudate nucleus. Keeping aside all other smells, the dogs always prioritize the waft of their humans over anyone or anything else.

2. Dogs and sounds

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Validating an earlier experiment done in Budapest, the recent studies also establish how dogs become excited when they hear joyful sounds. The reward center of their brains gets activated, making them feel excited and happy.

3. Dogs and hugs

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Dogs are also the only "non-primate" beings to look directly into their human's eyes. Not only this, dogs are the "only domesticated animals" to seek protection from humans when they are down. Their running straight into our arms is a proof of that.

4. Dogs and emotions

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The emotional attachment that dogs develop with humans is reciprocated in equal measures by the humans. When scientists mapped the brain activity of mothers who have both had a baby and a dog for over two years, they found the same response from their reward centers - one of love and bonding.

5. Dogs and instincts

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While humans often misread the 'hangdog look' as a signifier of a dog's guilt, most of the times our intuition about what's really going on inside our pet's head turns out to be correct. We can also agree that it holds true for all the times when our dogs sense our inner thoughts to perfection.

Science is the best. I am running off to give my little furry best friend a tight hug. :)