More desirable bone. Scientists have discovered how much dogs love their owners

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

According to Clive Wynn, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University and director of Canine University, he firmly believes that “our dogs love us.” But Newton Gregory Burns, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Georgia, went further and decided not to confine himself to words but to study the dog brain.

in 24News Breaker. Technology emerged telegraph channel. Subscribe so you don’t miss the latest and exciting news from the world of science!

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

During the study, he exposed the dogs to a variety of odors, including familiar and unfamiliar people and dogs. The scientist found that in all 12 animals participating in the study, the olfactory region of the brain, to which they were offered the things of one or another person, of the animal, was activated. However, the most interesting thing happened when their owners were allowed to smell their belongings – at that moment the caudate nucleus, an area associated with higher mental processes, was enlightened, for example:

• feelings;
• motivation;
• fee;
• romantic feelings

The results of this study were published in 2015. The following year, an additional study was conducted with 15 dogs. Later, Burns found that 86% of recipients showed a similar or higher level of caudate activation in response to praise compared 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 put the owner, who had just returned from work, a bowl of food 2 meters away from the pets, and then the owner began to slowly move away. It turned out that in 8 out of 10 cases, the dogs preferred the owner’s food.

Another confirmation of her boundless love of pets was the research of Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University School of Veterinary Medicine in Japan. He and his colleagues discovered that dogs can shed tears when reunited with their owners after a long absence.

Inspired by the stories of dogs removing their owners after the bombing of London during World War II, Wynn and colleagues conducted another experiment involving 60 dogs and their owners. Researchers asked pet owners to climb boxes and pretend they were in trouble. The results of the study show that 1 in 3 people rush to the aid of their owner and “rescue” him.

At the same time, the researchers warn that people need to understand that the problem is not with them but with their pets. The truth is, dogs are born with an extraordinary ability to form strong emotional bonds with the different species they encounter during their first three months of life.

Previously Focus He wrote that scientists tested and rated the intelligence of 13 dog breeds.