Dogs process speech like humans do, study confirms, with 'consonant bias' found in any species for the FIRST TIME

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026.

Scientists have confirmed that dogs' brains deploy the same "consonant bias" mechanism humans use when processing speech — relying on consonants to carve continuous sounds into recognisable words. Published in the journal Science, the findings mark the first identification of this trait in a non-human species, primates included. Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest measured brain activity in 20 dogs and 20 humans while both groups listened to purpose-built speech streams.

The "consonant bias" — where the brain locks onto consonants to identify words — had until now been observed only in humans, absent even in our closest primate relatives.

Lead researcher Attila Andics suggested that sustained exposure to speech, rather than any uniquely human neural architecture, may be sufficient to produce the ability in other species.

Dogs are believed to develop the skill through sheer immersion — their lives spent in close proximity to ongoing human conversation.