Researchers out of Emory University have spent the past two years training dogs to go into MRI scanners so they could get the first scans of their active brains. (Via YouTube / kleeoak)
If you sedate an animal, you won’t get a scan of the active brain. So, the scientists had to train the dogs, and when they started getting those scans, they saw amazing activity.
BERNS: "Dogs recognize the scents of people they live with and they have positive feelings for them. ... basically the same things that humans love each other for — things like social comfort and social bonds." (Via YouTube / Emory University)
That's neuroscientist Gregory Berns, who writes in the The New York Times...
“ ... after training and scanning a dozen dogs, my one inescapable conclusion is this: dogs are people, too.”
Berns even says dogs "have a level of sentience comparable to that of a human child," arguing this makes "we must reconsider their treatment as property." (Via YouTube / TheJadeology)
And that there needs to be better "legal foundation" against animal cruelty. (Via The Huffington Post)
Still, a writer for the National Review argues Berns may be going too far...
“Dogs don’t have the capacity or rationality for self determination. ... Dogs become what we make of them, with their own personalities the added bonus. ... And love? Lots of it! But they are ‘not people too.’”
And yes, this study might just be confirming what dog owners have long known — that dogs have emotions, and that they love. (Via YouTube / Welcome Home Blog)
But Berns’ research marks the first scientific evidence of that love.
His team's findings will be further detailed in a new book, "How Dogs Love Us."
- See more at Newsy.com
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