Eötvös Loránd University study finds dogs share human-like consonant preference in speech

Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest have discovered that dogs exhibit a consonant preference when analyzing speech patterns, a cognitive trait previously thought to be unique to humans. The study, published in the journal Science, utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brain activity of 20 humans and 20 dogs.

During the experiment, subjects were exposed to continuous, unsegmented streams of syllables. The researchers found that the brain waves of both species synchronized significantly with the rhythm of words when those words were structured by consonants. This effect was not observed to the same extent with vowel-structured sequences or random sound patterns. In dogs, a measurable change in brain activity occurred approximately 400 milliseconds after the start of a consonant-based unit, a timeframe associated with word processing. This finding marks the first time such a consonant bias has been identified in a species other than humans, including non-human primates.