New Research Claims That You Can “Connect” Your Brain With Your Pet’s

A team of Chinese researchers is coming forward with some really exciting claims in the field of biology. Even though it might sound unreal, their latest study suggests that when you look at your dog – or into their eyes – you can actually synchronize your brains. 

This complex research was undertaken in China, where they say that “neural coupling” between two different species was witnessed for the first time in history. This process happens when the brain activity of two or more individuals aligns during an interaction. In some ways, amongst humans, this is often the response to a gripping story in a conversation.

Before this, neural coupling had only been seen in two members of the same species. Most commonly it was observed in humans and other primates, but also in mice and bats. Scientists agree that this “linking of brains” is likely important for shaping responses during social encounters. It is said that such behavior cannot occur in isolation and is thus essential for enhancing same-species cooperation.

So, with these new surprising results, many questions pop up. For one, is the relationship between dogs and humans as simple as we previously thought? Or can we coexist on a much deeper level?

After all, one of the very first animals that humans domesticated in history was the dog. That counts for a whole lot of shared history, numbering in hundreds of thousands of years. This means that dogs are much more than pet companions. Instead, they have a shared place in our society and history, and many uses that are vital to our existence, even today. All of this means that dogs have developed a set of intriguing skills throughout those centuries, including the ability to accurately understand our emotions. 

Using special equipment and processes, such as non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG), researchers in China were able to observe the neural signals transmitted from a beagle dog and a human, in a shared interaction. Much to their surprise, when dogs and humans would gaze into each other’s eyes, and when dogs were stroked in the process, their brain signals would synchronize. And the brain patterns associated with attention were suddenly matched in both human and dog.

And as the participants got to know each other, the brain patterns only got stronger and more accurate. This means that the depth of the relationship between man and dog is very important for synchronization. Of course, it is well known that dogs are able to form strong relationships, especially with humans. This could be just one of the many ways that they do this – that we know of, that is!