New research suggests that dogs can distinguish between foreign languages.
In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, found that dogs' brains showed different activity patterns when they heard familiar and unfamiliar languages.
The study involved 18 dogs, all of which were familiar with Hungarian. The dogs were placed in an MRI scanner and played recordings of Hungarian and English speech. The researchers found that the dogs' brains showed more activity in the auditory cortex when they heard Hungarian than when they heard English.
The researchers believe that these findings suggest that dogs are able to distinguish between different languages. They say that this ability could be due to the fact that dogs are exposed to different languages from an early age.
"Our findings suggest that dogs are able to learn and distinguish between different languages," said Attila Andics, lead author of the study. "This is an important finding, as it shows that dogs are not simply passive listeners, but are actively processing the information they hear."
The researchers say that their findings could have implications for how we train dogs. They say that if we can teach dogs to associate different languages with different rewards, we may be able to use this ability to train them to perform different tasks.
"This study shows that dogs are able to learn and distinguish between different languages," said Andics. "This is an important finding, as it shows that dogs are not simply passive listeners, but are actively processing the information they hear. Our findings could have implications for how we train dogs, as we may be able to use this ability to teach them to perform different tasks."
What do you think about this research? Do you think dogs are able to understand different languages?