Dog brains have sense of quantity and knack for numbers: Study

A recent study reveals that dogs have an innate sense of quantity the same way humans do and may even take notice when one put fewer treats in their bowl. According to the research, dogs naturally process numbers in a similar brain region as humans. The study also suggests a knack of numbers is present in even untrained dogs and they could have deep evolutionary roots. A psychologist at Georgia State University who wasn’t involved in the research, Michael Beran reportedly said that the study also supports the idea that the ways in which animals process quantity in their brains maybe 'ancient and widespread among species'. 

According to international media reports, Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta recruited 11 dogs from various breeds, including border collies, pitbull mixes, and Labrador golden retriever mixes to see whether they could find brain activity associated with a sensitivity to numbers. To conduct the study the team of scientists had their subjects enter the scanner, rest their heads on a block, and fix their eyes on a screen at the opposite end. According to reports, the screen was an array of light grey dots on a black background whose number changed every 300 milliseconds. The scientists said that eight out of the 11 dogs passed the test, further added that slightly different brain regions lit up in each dog, likely because they were different breeds. 

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Children exposed to dogs less likely to develop schizophrenia 

In another study, exposure to dogs from an early age is linked to a reduced risk of developing schizophrenia - as much as 24% - later in life, according to a US-based research study from John Hopkins Children Centre in Washington. Robert Yolken, MD from John Hopkins Children Centre and the primary researcher on the study told agencies and the journal that: "Serious psychiatric disorders have been associated with alterations in the immune system linked to environmental exposures in early life, and since household pets are often among the first things with which children have close contact, it was logical for us to explore the possibilities of a connection between the two."

A cat or a dog can strengthen the immune system of a young child plausible to hereditary schizophrenia through allergic reactions and microbe exposure apart from influencing changes in a person’s affective and neurochemistry.

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