Dogs can’t speak, but their brains respond to spoken words. Every dog owner knows that saying “Good dog!” in a happy, high voice will make their pet joyfully wag its tail. That made scientists curious: What exactly happens in your dog’s brain when it hears praise, and is it similar to the way our own brain processes such information?
When a person gets others’ compliment, the more primitive, subcortical auditory regions (皮层下听觉区) first reacts to the intonation — the emotional force of spoken words. Next, the brain taps the more recently evolved auditory cortex (听觉皮层) to figure out the meaning of the words, which is learned.
In 2016, a team of scientists discovered that dogs’ brains, like those of humans, compute the intonation and meaning of a word separately — although dogs use their right brain to do so, whereas we use our left one. Still, a puzzle remained: Do their brains go through the same steps to process approval?
It’s an important question, because dogs are a speechless species, yet they respond correctly to our words. For instance, some dogs are capable of recognising thousands of names of individual objects, and can link each name to a specific object.
When the scientists studied scans of the brains of pet dogs, they found that theirs, like ours, process the sounds of spoken words in this manner — analyzing first the emotional component with the older region of the brain, the subcortical regions, and then the words’ meaning with the newer part, the cortex.
See why dogs are so successful at partnering with us? Dogs and humans last shared a common ancestor some 100 million years ago, so it’s likely that our brains respond to sounds in a similar way. As domesticated animals that have evolved alongside humans for the past 10,000 years, dogs make special use of it to process human emotions. You know, what we say really matters to dogs!
12. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “compliment”?
A.Reply. | B.Praise. | C.Warning. | D.Advice. |
13. What is the first step a dog’s brain goes through to process approval?
A.Linking it to an object. | B.Analyzing the emotion. |
C.Working out its meaning. | D.Tapping the auditory cortex. |
14. How does the writer develop the text?
A.By comparing opinions. | B.By raising examples. |
C.By providing answers to questions. | D.By analyzing causes and effects. |
15. What is the best title for the text?
A.Dogs—good listeners |
B.Dogs—perfect partners |
C.Dogs and humans share a common ancestor actually |
D.Dogs understand spoken words the same way we do |