News Neuroscience

Dogs know words for their favorite toys

Canine brains showed signs of surprise when owners named the wrong toy

A white, gray and tan dog with electrodes on its head lies on a bed

Electrodes on dogs’ heads picked up signals of surprise when an unexpected toy appeared, results that suggest dogs form mental concepts of nouns.

Grzegorz Eliasiewicz

By Laura Sanders

Dogs may know more than they let on. Pet dogs’ brains displayed neural signs of surprise when their owners showed them an unexpected toy. The findings, published March 22 in Current Biology, suggest that dogs create mental concepts of objects.