Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Fogelbaum. In today's episode is another
Speaker 1: classic from our archives. In this one, we talk about
Speaker 1: what I have to Imagine was one of the most
Speaker 1: fun research studies to participate in in recent history, at
Speaker 1: the very least, which delved into how dogs use facial
Speaker 1: expressions to communicate with us humans. Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbam here. If you're like me, you love dogs, possibly
Speaker 1: more than people. Some days, their warm eyes and doggie
Speaker 1: grins have me wrapped around their fluffy pupper tails, and
Speaker 1: according to new research from the University of Portsmouth's Dog
Speaker 1: Cognition Center, dogs deliberately make more facial expressions when we're
Speaker 1: watching them, and it could be their way to communicate
Speaker 1: with us. The study was led by Dr Julienne Kaminski
Speaker 1: and published in a sen issue of Scientific Reports. Kaminski
Speaker 1: and her research team came to their conclusion after watching
Speaker 1: twenty four different dogs, all family pets of varying breeds
Speaker 1: and ages. Each dog was filmed individually in a room
Speaker 1: with a person who went through various scenarios including looking
Speaker 1: at the dog, looking away from the dog, and giving
Speaker 1: the dog food. The scientists then studied the dog's facial
Speaker 1: expressions using the Dog Facial Action Coding System or Dog FACTS,
Speaker 1: which is a scientific tool for coding canines facial movements.
Speaker 1: It was adapted from the FACTS system created for humans
Speaker 1: back in Kaminsky and her team discovered that each dog
Speaker 1: made animated faces when the person in the room was
Speaker 1: looking at it, including raising its eyebrows and sticking out
Speaker 1: its tongue, a much more than when the person's back
Speaker 1: was turned. In a press statement, Dr Kaminsky said the
Speaker 1: findings appear to support evidence that dogs are sensitive to
Speaker 1: humans attention and that expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate,
Speaker 1: not simple emotional displays. Most surprisingly is that even the
Speaker 1: presence of food didn't influence the dogs as much as
Speaker 1: human affection. Kaminski said, we knew domestic dogs paid attention
Speaker 1: to how attentive a human is. In a previous study,
Speaker 1: we found, for example, the dogs stole food more often
Speaker 1: when the human's eyes were closed or when they had
Speaker 1: their back turned. In another study, we found dogs follow
Speaker 1: the gaze of a human if the human first establishes
Speaker 1: eye contact with the dog, so the dog knows that
Speaker 1: the gaze shift is directed at them. Kavinski says it's
Speaker 1: possible that the expressions of dogs have changed as they've
Speaker 1: become more domesticated, but the study does have its limits.
Speaker 1: Twenty four canines makes for a small study sample, so
Speaker 1: it's likely that more dogs should be studied to confirm
Speaker 1: these findings, which sounds like an excellent research session to me.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article dogs make more
Speaker 1: expressive faces when humans are watching on how stuff works
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Speaker 1: of by Heart Radio and partnership with how staff works
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