It's official: Dogs love their owners, says study

New York: Do you know that you hold a special place in your dog's heart? A new research has confirmed that dogs love their owners as much as they love them.

The researchers who studied the canine brain using imaging technology found that not only do dogs seem to love their owners back, they actually see them as their family.

“Bonding with owners is much more important for dogs than other pets,” lead author of the study Attila Andics, was quoted as saying by Mic.

For the study, the researchers used neuroimaging to examine odour processing in the canine brain.

They found that of all the smells the dogs smelled during the MRI, it was only the scent of the dogs' owners that triggered activity in the caudate nucleus of the brain - otherwise known as the “reward centre”.

The study noted that dogs actually prioritised the scent of humans above everything else.

The findings seem to support previous canine neuroimaging research that showed that there are remarkable similarities to the way dog and human brains react to emotional cues.

(With Agency inputs)