Dogs aren't hardwired to care about human faces, a new study has found, and there's no area in their brain designed to distinguish between the back or front of someone's head.
一項新的研究發現，狗狗無法識別人類面孔，因為在它們的大腦中沒有用來區分人類後腦或前腦的區域。
Researchers measured brain activity in dogs and humans as they showed them videos of faces and backs of heads, a press release from Eötvös Loránd University, in Hungary, said.
匈牙利羅蘭大學發布的一份新聞稿稱，研究人員向狗和人類展示了面部和後腦勺的視頻，並測量了他們的大腦活動。
While faces are hugely important for visual communication in humans, the same can't be said for our canine companions.
雖然面部對人類的視覺交流來說至關重要，但對我們的狗狗夥伴來說卻並非如此。
Experiments involving functional magnetic resonance imaging on 20 dogs were carried out at Eötvös Loránd University and the National Autonomous University of México, two of very few facilities that can scan dogs' brains when they are awake and unrestrained.
匈牙利羅蘭大學和墨西哥國立自治大學共同開展了這項試驗，對20隻狗進行了磁共振功能成像掃描，這兩所大學是極少數能夠在狗狗清醒和不受約束的情況下掃描其大腦的研究機構。
Results revealed large dedicated neural networks in human brains are used to differentiate faces from non-faces.
結果表明，人類大腦中有大面積專門的神經網絡用來區分人臉和非人臉。
In dogs there are no brain regions that fire to differentiate faces.
然而在狗的大腦中，卻沒有用來區分面孔的區域。
Instead, dogs use more information from smell or larger parts of the body, study co-author Attila Andics of Eötvös Loránd University said.
相反，這項研究的作者之一，匈牙利羅蘭大學的阿提拉· 安第西斯（Attila Andics）表示，狗是通過嗅覺或更大的身體部位獲取更多信息。
"In dogs, for kin recognition and mate selection facial cues are not more important than non-facial bodily cues, acoustic or chemical signals," Andics said.
她表示，「對於狗來說，在辨別親人和選擇配偶方面，面部線索並不比非面部的身體線索、聲音或化學信號更重要。」
Andics said that dogs do care about human faces, even if their brains aren't specifically tuned into them.
安第西斯表示，即使狗的大腦沒有專門的區域負責識別人臉，它們也的確關心人類面孔。
"I think it is amazing that, despite apparently not having a specialized neural machinery to process faces, dogs nevertheless excel at eye contact, following gaze, reading emotions from our face, and they can even recognize their owner by the face."
「我認為令人驚奇的是，儘管狗的大腦中顯然沒有專門的神經網絡來辨別人臉，但狗還是很擅長眼神交流，跟隨人類目光並從我們的臉上了解情緒，它們甚至可以通過面部識別自己的主人。」
Researchers will now compare how dog and human brains process other visual categories such as body parts, various species and everyday objects.
研究人員將會比較狗和人的大腦如何處理其他視覺信息，比如身體部位、各種物種和日常物品。
The team will also investigate whether dog brains have developed different specializations as a result of living with humans.
研究小組還將調查狗的大腦是否因與人類生活在一起而發展出了不同的特長。