Dog ownership is a lot of furry companionship, tail wags and chasing balls, and ample unconditional love.
They then analyzed whether there were differences between the brain function of anxious and non-anxious dogs, and if those differences actually related to anxious behaviors.The researchers found there were indeed significant differences between anxious and non-anxious dogs. The main differences were in the communication pathways and connection strength within the"anxiety circuit". These differences were linked with higher scores for particular behaviors in the surveys as well.
The researchers also found less efficient connections in anxious dogs between two regions of the brain important for learning and information processing. This may help explain why the owners of the anxious dogs in the study reported lower trainability for their dog.Brains are exquisitely complex biological computers, and our understanding of them is far from comprehensive. As such, this study should be interpreted cautiously.
However, the study does show strong evidence for measurable differences in the way anxious dog brains are wired, compared to non-anxious dogs. This research can't tell us whether changes in the brain caused the anxiety or the other way around, but anxiety in dogs is certainly real.
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