Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dog-vision-vs-human-vision/

We might sometimes think that dogs look at the world through rose-colored glasses. After all, they seem so happy-go-lucky.

In reality, there are some differences in the way dogs see the world around them compared to humans, and it was part of an interesting study.

In order to determine how a dog’s vision worked, researchers showed some canines videos while the dogs were inside an MRI. After looking at the data, it showed that there were certainly differences in the way dogs and humans view the world.

The study was entitled “Through a Dog’s Eyes: fMRI Decoding of Naturalistic Videos from the Dog Cortex” and it gives us a better idea of what dogs see when they are watching the world around them. In order to make a comparison, some humans were also added to the study.

The study was possible through the use of MRI and machine learning, and researchers were able to look at certain visual stimuli that came from humans and canines. In the end, it gives us a better insight into how we perceive the world and how our furry friends perceive it.

It should be noted that researchers did this with dogs but they have not yet done it with other animals. It will be interesting to see how other animals are affected by similar studies.

In essence, they looked at how dogs were affected when they looked at object-based classifiers, versus action-based classifiers. Object-based classifiers include animals and people and action-based classifiers would be more like barking and sniffing.

Dogs tend to focus more on things that were action based but humans tend to focus on things that were object-based. That was true, even though they watched the same video. Perhaps it’s better explained as a dog watches movement while a person watches objects.

Something else that affected the study is the way a dog sees colors, which is thought to be different than humans as well.

In the end, a relatively small sample size was used for the study but it is still interesting. They based the results on two dogs, but they are hoping that it can be applied to other studies as well so they can get more data and learn more in the process.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog