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.
A compassionate dog mom, who delivered her puppies on the street, was rescued along with her precious pups just in the nick of time
She didn’t choose the life of the streets; someone had abandoned her earlier. However, when the realization of impending motherhood struck, there was no escaping the harsh reality of the streets. She had no time to find shelter; her babies were coming, and she summoned every ounce of strength to bring them into the world.
Heartbroken, exhausted, teetering on the brink…
This forsaken dog mother exhibited both fragility and incredible strength, a testament to the resilience that all mothers carry within them.
Will her story have a happy ending? Could this suffering lead to something better for once?
Kudos, Momma! The Puppies Have Arrived
The sight of a vulnerable, freshly birthed dog mother lying beside her newborns tore at my heartstrings. The image was a desperate plea for assistance.
This poor dog mother was utterly drained of strength.
How could she be strong when she had been broken in so many ways?
According to her collar, her previous owners had discarded her, likely because she was pregnant. Deprived of proper sustenance, water, or shelter, this gentle soul roamed the streets, searching for a safe place to give birth.
Yet, sometimes, plans simply remain as plans. Labor took her by surprise, forcing her to deliver right there on the street, on a humble piece of cardboard.
Six puppies entered this world that day, though tragically, two of them were angels from the start.
Despite her extreme exhaustion, as soon as she noticed people approaching, the mother summoned the last reserves of her strength and rose to her feet. She had to protect her precious offspring.
Unaware that these people were t here to help her, she went into full defensive mode, acting aggressively to shield her babies. It seemed as though she didn’t realize that there were good-hearted people in the world, and not everyone meant harm.
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The rescue team faced three fierce encounters with the mother before they finally succeeded in capturing her, along with her little ones, and relocating them to safety.
Back at the shelter, the rescuers were relieved to find that the mother had enough milk to nourish her puppies. Now, it was time to nourish the mother herself.
She was ravenous, beyond exhaustion, and yearning for a proper meal.
That day, the mother was fed three times, a stark contrast to the typical one or two daily meals for dogs. She devoured approximately 5 pounds of liver in her first two meals, a testament to her hunger.
After the critical first 48 hours, the puppies began to thrive, growing, opening their eyes, and experiencing the joys of puppyhood.
The mother, though still somewhat traumatized and apprehensive around humans, was making progress. Sooner or later, she would learn to trust people again.
Without the kindness of these compassionate individuals, dog lovers, and dedicated rescuers, the mother and her puppies would have faced starvation.
After all the trials in her young life, the mother was finally granted the life she had always deserved.
We may not be able to save all stray dogs or solve every problem, but at the very least, we can spare a few dollars to feed the dogs on our streets. If everyone were to pitch in, the number of stray dogs in need could be significantly reduced.
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