Greg Berns, an Emory neuroscientist, has found that when dogs sniff a rag soaked in their owner's scent, activity spikes in their caudate nucleus — a reward center involved in emotional attachment. It doesn't when they smell a stranger's scent. He's also found that the same activity occurs when these dogs' owners walk into the room, but not when strangers do.Also, turns out dogs can learn hundreds of words. Not just "dinnertime" and "no!"
UPDATE: Do you love your dog?
4 comments:
I personally do not doubt that animals love. I've seen too much of it to think otherwise. But I also don't depend on science to confirm it for me. Like so many other things, my faith is not dependent on outside confirmation. Else it wouldn't require very much faith, would it?
I don't imagine my dogs feel emotions that fit into the same categories that mine do. That they're miserable to be parted from me is obvious, as is their cheerful frenzy upon reunion, and to that degree at least my behavior reciprocates theirs.
I feel an excitement in a part of my brain associated with reward when I smell my husband. It doesn't mean that my subjective experience matches that of my dogs, but it's true that I use the same word for both feelings. Language is flexible; context matters.
Even birds -- who are closer to dinosaurs than dogs -- are loving creatures, and receive love from humans in return. At least some of them do.
(The author of this golden oldie claimed to know the difference between which bird, sitting on your shoulder, was really fond of you, and which was watching for the next mealworm, a point that differed from species to species.)
I'm owned by a purely decorative cat. Loved? No, tolerated, shed upon, harassed for food starting 56 minutes before feeding time, importuned at inopportune moments, licked, and rubbed against, but not loved. ;)
LittleRed1
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