Dogs prioritise consonants over vowels when listening to speech
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Researchers in Hungary studied how dogs process speech, discovering that dogs pay more attention to consonants than vowels when people speak to them.
Attila Andics at Eötvös Loránd University and his colleagues examined 20 dogs and 20 people using EEG monitors while they listened to nonsense words. The scientists created speech streams with recurring consonant patterns, vowel patterns, or random syllables to measure brain activity.
The team observed that dogs’ brains showed a significantly stronger response to consonant-based patterns, with neural activity 42 percent higher than to vowel-based patterns. Human brains also reacted more strongly to consonants, but not as dramatically as those of the dogs. The researchers believe dogs developed this bias because living with humans and hearing speech reshaped their brains. Andics’ team suggests dogs not exposed to human speech likely wouldn’t exhibit this preference.
Nick Enfield at the University of Sydney notes that the study focused on Hungarian dogs and speakers, and that languages vary in their reliance on consonants. However, Enfield suggests a practical implication: owners might choose names with more consonants to better capture their dog’s attention.
