Scientists have described what happens in a dog’s brain when communicating with a human

Scientists from China and the UK have discovered that a dog’s brain synchronizes with a human’s brain during communication. The animals also respond differently to eye contact and petting, and atypical brain activity can indicate mental illness. According to previous studies, humans synchronize during interaction, both on the level of emotion and brain activity.

This connection is especially strong in those in close relationships and is not the same between, for example, best friends and romantic partners. It is also known that during a conversation, each person’s brain processes information verbatim and takes context into account.

Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University (both in China) and Lincoln University in Great Britain studied what happens in the brains of humans and dogs when they communicate. The results of their research were published in a scientific journal Advanced Science.

It turned out that brain activity during communication is synchronized not only in humans, but also in humans and dogs. When the “talkers” looked at each other attentively, there was a reciprocal response in the frontal lobe, and when a person stroked a dog, there was a reciprocal response in the parietal lobe. Both of these areas are involved in attention.

The experiment, involving 19 dogs, lasted five days. During this time, they gradually got closer to their matched person and synchrony became stronger. In interspecies communication, the human was the leader and the dog was the “follower.”

At the same time, some animals (nine out of 19 dogs) had genetic mutations. They caused signs of social inferiority inherent in autism spectrum disorders. Dogs with such traits lost synchrony in communicating with people and became less attentive. It was possible to eliminate these deviations with the help of a single dose of LSD – a semi-synthetic psychoactive substance belonging to psychedelics and capable of causing addiction.

The authors of the scientific article concluded: “There are two implications of our study: first, the violation of interbrain synchrony can be used as a biomarker of autism, and second, LSD or its derivatives can alleviate the social symptoms of autism.”