Human language

The utilization of language distinguishes humans uniquely within the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, due to dogs evolving in parallel with humans, their brains have undergone positive selection, enabling them to comprehend human language to a certain extent. This divergence sets them apart in the animal kingdom, marking a distinction from non-human primates. Our hypothesis posits that dogs have independently developed a white matter pathway connecting cortical areas associated with vocal perception to higher brain regions responsible for generating suitable responses to human vocal communication

…Human language already separates us from other intelligent animals on Earth, despite our ability to exchange some signals with them. The lecture compares those barriers with the challenge of recognising and understanding an alien civilisation, asking whether research on animal communication offers reasons for optimism about contact beyond Earth.