How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013 - Medical - 248 pages
The powerful bond between humans and dogs is one that's uniquely cherished. Loyal, obedient, and affectionate, they are truly "man's best friend." But do dogs love us the way we love them? Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns had spent decades using MRI imaging technology to study how the human brain works, but a different question still nagged at him: What is my dog thinking?

After his family adopted Callie, a shy, skinny terrier mix, Berns decided that there was only one way to answer that question--use an MRI machine to scan the dog's brain. His colleagues dismissed the idea. Everyone knew that dogs needed to be restrained or sedated for MRI scans. But if the military could train dogs to operate calmly in some of the most challenging environments, surely there must be a way to train dogs to sit in an MRI scanner.

With this radical conviction, Berns and his dog would embark on a remarkable journey and be the first to glimpse the inner workings of the canine brain. Painstakingly, the two worked together to overcome the many technical, legal, and behavioral hurdles. Berns's research offers surprising results on how dogs empathize with human emotions, how they love us, and why dogs and humans share one of the most remarkable friendships in the animal kingdom.

How Dogs Love Us answers the age-old question of dog lovers everywhere and offers profound new evidence that dogs should be treated as we would treat our best human friends: with love, respect, and appreciation for their social and emotional intelligence.

 

Contents

1 Dia de los Muertos
1
2 What Its Like to Be a Dog
13
3 A Fishing Expedition
21
4 Puppy Steps
31
5 The Scanner Dilemma
41
6 Resonant Dogs
48
7 Lawyers Get Involved
56
8 The Simulator
68
16 A New World
150
17 Peas and Hot Dogs
158
18 Through a Dogs Eyes
168
19 Eureka
179
20 Does My Dog Love Me?
186
21 Whats That Smell?
195
22 First Friend
206
23 Lyra
215

9 Basic Training
75
10 The StandIn
87
11 The Carrot or the Stick?
97
12 Dogs at Work
105
13 The Lost Wedding Ring
114
14 Big Questions
125
15 Dog Day Afternoon
134
24 What Dogs Are Really Thinking
225
Epilogue
234
Back Matter
241
Back Flap
249
Back Cover
250
Spine
251
Copyright

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About the author (2013)

GREGORY BERNS, M.D., Ph.D., is the Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics at Emory University. Dr. Berns's research is frequently the subject of popular media coverage, including articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

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