Dogs are known to be loyal to their owners and researchers now say that dogs also love and care about their masters.
Dogs are one of the oldest animals domesticated by humans and for thousands of years they have been the most widely kept pet . Dogs have also assisted humans in hunting and work such as guarding home and livestock. No wonder they are often referred to as man's best friend.
A team of scientists at the Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, trained around a dozen dogs to cope with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist, worked with a dog trainer to teach Callie, a 9-month old rescue dog, and McKenzie, a 3-year old collie, to lie in a MRI machine.
The dogs were entered in the MRI machines to get clear images of their brains without the need of sedating them. Scientists used just hand signals to indicate to the dog that they were about to receive a food treat.
Scientists examined the scanned images of the dog's brain and confirmed that caudate nucleus, a part of the brain associated with positive emotions such as affection and love, is similar in dogs as well as humans.
"We can really begin to understand what a dog is thinking [using a scanner] rather than infer it from their behaviour. I thought that if military dogs can be trained to work in dangerous areas and jump out of helicopters then surely we could train them to sit still inside an MRI scanner," said Berns.
The scientists say that in the next part of their research they will analyze brain scans from dogs when offered food by strangers and machines.
"If, as many scientists have argued in the past, it is all simply about [getting] food for dogs then the reaction in their brains would be the same no matter who or what is offering them the food," said Berns.
The researchers say that they hope to show that dogs love humans not just to get food but "for things far beyond food."
Berns also opines that with the research, they want to establish that social comfort and social bonds enable dogs to develop emotion and love, which is similar to human behavior.
