Dogs Distinguish Human Emotions via Brain Activity

Analysis of whole-brain activity revealed that dogs also distinguish between frightened and sad faces, as well as fear and anger.

Consensus

Dogs can distinguish between different human facial expressions using their brain activity.
The study used functional MRI to observe brain responses in dogs while they viewed human faces.
Dogs showed different brain responses to fear, sadness, and anger.
Dogs reacted more strongly to happy faces, particularly in the right temporal cortex.
The study involved 12 dogs, mostly Border Collies.
The research was conducted by scientists from Austria, Hungary, and Mexico.
The findings were published in the journal iScience on August 10.
Dogs were trained to remain still in the MRI scanner in a sphinx position.
The study found no reliable distinction in brain response between sadness and anger.

The first experiment involved eight dogs and tested happy vs. neutral faces, showing reward-related brain activation to happy faces. — tg_tvrain
The study concluded that dogs can distinguish specific negative facial expressions, with brain activity patterns clearly separating fear, anger, and sadness. — tg_rian_ru
The study found that dogs could distinguish fear from sadness and fear from anger, but not sadness from anger. — tg_echoonline_news