Dogs Really Do Remember Our Faces, Says Study

Dogs really do remember people as they have a region of their brains entirely dedicated to recognising faces, according to a new study.

This kind of facial recognition has previously only been demonstrated in humans and apes and may help to explain why canine pals are so good at recognising social cues.

“Our findings show that dogs have an innate way to process faces in their brains, a quality that has previously only been well-documented in humans and other primates,” said Emory University neuroscientist senior author of the study Gregory Berns.

“Dogs are obviously highly social animals,” Berns said, “so it makes sense that they would respond to faces. We wanted to know whether that response is learned or innate.”

Published by Peer J, the research used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine six plucky pooches, all of which were trained to sit still in the scanner without sedation.

The dogs also had to be trained to pay attention to the screen for 30 seconds at a time.

The study concentrated on how the dogs responded to human faces compared with everyday objects.

The results showed that a region in the canine temporal lobe responded exclusively to human faces.

Researchers suggest that the fact that dogs are able to identify and remember faces is not surprising, given their social nature - which is similar to that of humans and apes.

(Image: Gregory Berns)