Hugh: Science Shows Petting a Dog is Good for Your Brain

If you have a dog, you probably don’t need another reason to give your pet some attention, but we’re going to give you one anyway. New research shows that petting dogs actually has a significant impact on your brain. In fact, the simple act of touching a dog boosts neurons in your pre-frontal cortex. That boost helps people regulate their emotions better, making them more sociable and assisting with things like stress and depression. A substitute for a dog just won’t do. The experiment looked at the difference in the brain when petting dogs compared to a stuffed animal and found a large difference in neural activity. Another key finding was that pre-frontal brain activity increased each time a person reacted with a real dog, suggesting that spending more time with pets has a cumulative benefit. Man’s best friend indeed.