Dog and Human Brains Sync When They Stare Into Each Other’s Eyes, New Study Finds

We know what happens in our own brains when we gaze into a dog’s eyes — in non-scientific terms, it’s heaven on earth. Now, thanks to new research, we know that the relationship isn’t one-sided — and those ooey-gooey feelings of connection aren’t made up. A new study published in Advanced Science found that when dogs and humans stare into each other’s eyes, our brain activity actually syncs up.

Previous research has found that being “on the same wavelength” is a real thing; while socializing or working on an activity together, our neural activity can sync up with other peoples’ — in fact, when we’re really enjoying a concert, our brain activity becomes similar to that of the musician’s. Similar syncing has been found in mice, bats, and monkeys, and it has been shown to increase attention and the quality of social interactions. The latest research proves that this harmony doesn’t just happen between creatures of the same species; humans’ brains match up with our dogs, too. 

The study 

In the study, ten Beagles were paired with ten unknown humans. The humans and Beagles both had electroencephalograms (EEGs) measuring their brain activity as they engaged in petting and mutual gazing.

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Especially if you pet them.

“We observed that interbrain correlations in frontal and parietal regions dramatically increased … during mutual gaze,” wrote Wei Ren, the study’s lead author. The brain activity was even more synced when humans both pet and gazed at the dogs. 

The more familiar with each other they were, the greater the connection. “The strength of the synchronization increases with growing familiarity of the human–dog dyad over five days,” Ren wrote.

Previous research has found that petting a dog increases activity in a human’s prefrontal cortex, which can help us improve our social skills, emotional regulation, and attention spans — but this is the first evidence that this increased brain activity is at work in a pup’s brain during bonding, too. So, give your pup a chin scratch and stare into those puppy eyes; it’s bonding, it’s good for both of your brains...and you were going to anyway, right?