Ralph Adolphs (2017), a social neuroscientist, emphasizes that the growing body of research on canine cognition reveals a rich repertoire of emotional and cognitive processes, many of which are homologous to those found in humans. He highlights the importance of considering both dog–dog interactions and dog–human relationships to better understand how emotions manifest and evolve in domestic dogs.
Adolphs reviews findings from behavioral studies and newer neuroimaging data, including the activation of reward-related brain regions when dogs smell their owners, and auditory cortex sensitivity to human vocal tone. These results suggest that dogs process emotional and social information in ways strikingly similar to humans and other higher mammals.
The review argues that such evidence substantially narrows the grounds for denying dogs subjective emotional experiences. Instead, the convergence of behavioral, neurological, and social data supports the view that dogs may consciously feel emotions such as attachment, joy, or anxiety. Adolphs concludes that recognizing this is not only scientifically valid but also ethically significant, shaping how we understand and treat dogs in human society.
Source: Adolphs, R. (2017). Dogs consciously experience emotions: The question is, which? Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling, 2(2). Author: Ralph Adolphs. Citations: 7.
