Inside a Dog’s Brain: What We Know

Humans and dogs have been companions for more than 15,000 years, a tradition that holds strong today. 65 million people in the US or about 40% of all American households have a dog. Dogs are some of the most popular and beloved pets due to their unconditional love, perpetual happiness, and unique skill sets. As all dog owners can attest, each and every dog has a unique personality. Just like humans, no dog is the same, and that’s what makes them so special.

Currently, there are multiple canine research programs at renowned universities globally and in the US. Most notably are Harvard’s Canine Brains Project and Yale’s Canine Cognition Center. I was surprised to find that dogs have been trained to stay still in MRI machines for researchers to analyze brain activity when they are exposed to various smells, sounds, and visual stimuli. (The dogs were never restrained or sedated and were free to hop off the table as they desired).

Here are the highlights we have learned from canine studies:

• Dog’s brains are structurally very similar to humans, meaning all of the basic machinery is there, but their brains are smaller and have far less “folds”, which results in decreased cognitive abilities.

• The frontal lobe for a dog accounts for a mere 10% of their brain, in contrast to 33% in humans. The frontal lobe controls for decision making, executive functioning, memories, language, and movement in humans. For dogs, this translates to temperament, alertness, memory, and intelligence.

• A very active part of the canine brain is the striatum, a dopamine-filled region that controls reward, pleasure, and expectation. You can imagine this part of the brain racing when your furry friend is wagging their tail, smiling, or playing with their favorite toy.

• 2% of a dog’s brain weight processes smells, compared to only 0.03% in humans. One study showed that a major driver of how dogs perceive social stimuli is through their sense of smell. When dogs were shown photos of familiar faces and bodies of humans, their smell center was activated rather than the visual center as seen in humans.

• Just like humans, dogs have a specific region in their brain that helps them recognize people and objects. Studies showed that not only did they prefer photos of body posture and faces over inanimate objects, but their brains were most perceptive to body posture as a form of recognition over faces.

• Compared to the scent of an unfamiliar person, other household dog, or an unfamiliar dog, canines showed the most activity in their reward center when they were exposed to the scent of their owner.

• Interestingly, when 15 dogs were given verbal praise from their owners versus a food reward for choosing the correct toy by name, 13/15 dogs exhibited equal or more pleasure from human praise versus the treat.

Dogs are intuitive creatures with heightened sensory instincts, which allowed them to survive in the wild. Today, survival is off the table as our dogs become integral parts of our households, but their instincts live on. Unlike humans who can dwell on the past and overthink the future, dogs only live in the present, paying keen attention to your body language with every move. They learn to predict your behaviors and engage with the person who is most likely to pay attention to them. As it turns out, your dog may not be the next Albert Einstein, but rather a trained observer.

Give your dog an extra long hug for that special smell and all the good praise! Their brain will thank you.

Source:

Berns G. Decoding the canine mind. Cerebrum. 2020 Mar-Apr; 2020: cer-04-20. Published online 2020 Apr 1. Accessed November 7, 2023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7192336/

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