Dogs are able to tell the difference between a happy or angry human facial expression. This is revealed by a new study by biologist Corsin Müller of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, conducted on 11 dogs, including Border Collie, fox terrier, golden retriever and German shepherd. It is first solid evidence that an animal other than humans is capable of 'reading' emotional expressions in another species.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
I dogs I am able to tell the difference between a happy or angry human facial expression. This is what a new study by biologist Corsin Müller of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, conducted on 11 dogs, including Border Collie, fox terrier, golden retriever and German shepherd. It is first solid proof that an animal other than humans is capable of 'read' the emotional expressions in another species.
In fact, animals, including humans, can express theirs emotions outwardly, for example with facial expressions or vocalizations. They know how to decipher the emotional expressions in members of their own species, because this allows them to anticipate the behaviors of others and interact with them in an appropriate way.
But understanding the difference between emotional expressions in other species is a challenge, as emotions can be expressed in very different ways. The ability to recognize emotional expressions in other species probably depends on experience.
In the new study, Huber and colleagues trained dogs to recognize images of the same happy or angry person. Some dogs were only shown the top half of their faces, while others only saw the bottom halves. The faces were presented on a touch screen and the dogs were rewarded when they touched the face happy or angry with the nose.
After this training, the researchers tested the dogs' ability to spontaneously categorize new photos. Their performances showed that they could not only learn to identify facial expressions, but also transfer what they had learned to new faces. Researchers say the dogs must have used theemotional expression of faces to solve the task, as this was the only shared hallmark.
The study has been published in the journal Current Biology.
Roberta Ragni
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