A recent study casts a fresh look at the world of dog–human communication, providing a new understanding of how our four-legged friends respond to human speech. Researchers from the Ethology Department at Eötvös Loránd University have indeed found that dogs’ brains “light up” more in response to a specific tone of voice. The details of these findings are published in the journal Communications Biology.
The Powers of Baby Talk
Baby talk refers to the particular language adults use when interacting with infants and young children. The tone of voice is generally softer and more melodic, with rising and falling intonations, making it more pleasant and engaging for the little ones. Adults often accompany their words with exaggerated facial expressions, smiles, mimics and gestures to reinforce the meaning of words and phrases.
Baby talk is regarded as an effective strategy for encouraging children’s linguistic development. It exposes them to linguistic models and encourages them to imitate sounds and words. This type of language also strengthens the bond between adults and children, while fostering a secure environment.
Human babies are not the only ones who understand this kind of language. Indeed, the way humans adjust their speech when communicating with their young offspring has also recently been observed in bottlenose dolphins. It turns out that dogs are also sensitive to it.
Puppies, but Also Adults
Earlier research had already suggested that using baby talk with puppies helps improve their attention. Here, researchers from York University have found that this effect also applies to adult dogs.
For these studies, Hungarian researchers used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to explore this phenomenon by monitoring the brains of trained dogs exposed to different tones of speech. Inside the machine, each dog heard voice recordings of twelve men and twelve women articulated for adults or infants.
They found that the dogs’ brains were more reactive to high-pitched speech directed at infants. The dogs were also particularly sensitive to the speech of women using baby talk.
The fact that the words addressed to an infant and to a dog are so similar and that dogs respond as well to both is probably not a coincidence. According to the authors, this sensitivity is likely due to the domestication process and the interactions maintained between our two species over the past thousands of years.
In light of these findings, researchers encourage dog owners to adopt this particular style of language when interacting with their pets. In doing so, you could forge even stronger bonds, while dogs could be more likely to obey.
