Dogs with anxiety have stronger neural connections between the amygdala and other areas of the anxiety network in the brain compared to less anxious dogs.
Toddlers are twice as likely to help a dog reach a toy, even when the animal showed no interest in the object. The findings suggest toddlers' prosocial and goal-reading abilities extend beyond other humans and to animals.
Areas of the genome associated with brain development harbor variants that seem to account for behavioral differences between dog breeds. The genomic differences between dog breeds are related to the development of their nervous systems. Researchers say genes associated with different dog lineages may relate to genes involved in the development of human behavior.
The ability of dogs to "sniff out" certain diseases including COVID-19 infection and cancer has been well documented over recent years. Now, a new study reveals dogs can detect a person's stress level by odor alone.
Interacting with dogs leads to greater activation in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with emotional and social processing.
Dogs have multi-modal mental imagery of items and objects that are familiar to them. When a dog thinks about an object, they imagine the object's different sensory features.
A new study demonstrated dogs do not reciprocate food-giving, nor do they act more favorably toward a friendly human.
After 14,000 years of domestication, dogs have an edge in both cognition and people-reading skills over wolves.
Trained scent detection dogs are able to detect organic compounds associated with COVID-19 in patients. Researchers report the dogs are better at detecting coronavirus infection than standard tests.
The living environment has a significant impact on the skin microbiota, but not gut bacteria, in both humans and dogs.
Using aversive stimuli and punishments to train dogs leads to increased stress and anxiety in the animals.
Dog owners whose pets are diabetic are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with healthier pets. The study supports the hypothesis that pet owners may share certain behaviors, such as physical activity level, with their pet.
