What It's Like to Be a Dog: And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience

by Gregory Berns

Overview

"Dog lovers and neuroscientists should both read this important book." — Dr. Temple Grandin

What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist and bestselling author Gregory Berns and his team did something nobody had ever attempted: they trained dogs to go into an MRI scanner — completely awake — so they could figure out what they think and feel. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns takes us into the minds of wild animals: sea lions who can learn to dance, dolphins who can see with sound, and even the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. Berns's latest scientific breakthroughs prove definitively that animals have feelings very much like we do — a revelation that forces us to reconsider how we think about and treat animals. Written with insight, empathy, and humor, What It's Like to Be a Dog is the new manifesto for animal liberation of the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541672994
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	368,937
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gregory Berns, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Emory University, where he directs the Center for Neuropolicy and Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller, How Dogs Love Us. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and too many dogs.

Editorial Reviews

Named one of the "TEN BEST SCIENCE BOOKS OF 2017" by Smithsonian

Named one of the "Best Books of 2017" by The Bark

"Groundbreaking research that shows that dog emotions are similar to people's. Training dogs to voluntarily lie still in the MRI brain scanner was a brilliant way to explore the workings of their brains. Dog lovers and neuroscientists should both read this important book."—Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translationand Animals Make us Human

"In this big-hearted book, Gregory Berns applies cutting-edge science to questions that have never been so timely: How do other animals perceive their worlds? How do they experience emotions? How does their language work? What It's Like to Be a Dog is a delightful, illuminating look at the minds and lives of our fellow creatures."—Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean: A Journey Into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins

"One of the most delightful things about What It's Like to Be a Dog is the attention Berns pays to each dog's individual quirks."—New Yorker

"Berns mixes personal stories of dogs and dog lovers with elegant scientific experiments that show the surprising complexity behind many canine daily behaviours: a fun, fascinating and illuminating read."—New Scientist

"This truly fascinating book shows a profound respect for animals, and one that is broadening our understanding of what it's like to be a dog."—The Bark

"Berns also peeks into the gray matter of dolphins, sea lions, and Tasmanian devils, bolstering his contention that both four-footed and sea-dwelling mammals think and feel much as we do, a sentiment animal lovers and fans of books by Jane Goodall, E. O. Wilson, and Jeffrey Moussaieff Mason will heartily embrace."—Booklist

"The author explains that his purpose in writing this book is 'to raise awareness of the mental lives of the animals with whom we share the planet.' In that, he succeeds. An impressive overview of modern neurology and the still-unanswered issues raised by our treatment of our fellow living creatures."—Kirkus Reviews

"An informed and humane exploration at the frontiers of animal sentience."—The Times (UK)

"A fascinating journey towards an understanding of what dogs—and their mammalian cousins—might be thinking about us."—John Bradshaw, author of the New York Timesbestsellers Dog Sense and Cat Sense and the forthcoming The Animals Among Us

"Berns has done it again: woven a compelling story with a scientific revolution. Marvelously written and intellectually engaging, What It's Like to Be a Dog will establish Berns as one of the most skilled neuroscientists of our day, as well as someone with the intuition that understanding other animals will lead to greater insight and knowledge about ourselves."—Dr. Brian Hare, New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Dogs

"Gregory Berns is boldly going where no one has gone before, offering a lively, eye-opening peek into his neuroscience kitchen."—Frans de Waal, author of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

"Dr. Gregory Berns' new book is a fascinating read. Packed with personal stories, What It's Like to Be a Dog clearly lays out just who these amazing beings are, from the inside out. We can now learn what each individual animal wants and needs to have the best life possible in a human-centered world, and what we must do to make sure they do."—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado, author of The Animals' Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age and Canine Confidential: An Insider's Guide to the Best Lives for Dogs and Us

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
The science of brain imaging involves measuring the physical activity in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Berns (psychology & neuroeconomics, Emory Univ.; How Dogs Love Us) describes his Dog Project—an MRI study to see what the structure and functioning of the canine brain might reveal about the animal's inner life. Scanning the brains of nearly 20 dogs, Berns found that the canine organ bears a striking resemblance to our own and therefore dogs probably experience pain, joy, and other mental and emotional states much as we do. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this project was the dogs themselves. Volunteered by their owners to undergo a rigorous MRI training regimen (albeit with lots of treats), these pets learned to endure the loud noise of the MRI machine, to place their heads in a coil, and to remain still during scanning. Ultimately, Berns hopes to build an archive of the three-dimensional brain structures of the earth's megafauna—an ambitious project he calls the Brain Ark. VERDICT It's not necessary to be a dog lover to enjoy this blend of compelling storytelling and clearly explained neuroscience. Recommended for anyone interested in the biological continuities between humans and our fellow sentient beings.—Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

Library Journal

2017-06-14
Berns (Neuroeconomics/Emory Univ.; How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain, 2013, etc.) reveals how his training to be a doctor shaped his life in unexpected ways.The author was using MRI to study the processes involved in decision-making when the death of a beloved dog led him to ponder the human-dog relationship. After viewing photographs of the capture of Osama bin Laden in which dogs were jumping from helicopters under chaotic conditions, the author believed if he could train a dog to enter an MRI machine voluntarily, he could compare the functioning of human and dog brains. One of his motives was to refute the rationale that dogs are unaware of their own suffering, a view that was used to justify the medical school practice of dissecting them without anesthesia while still alive. Dogs (and other animals) can be conditioned to respond to hand signals or spoken words, but Berns asks, to what extent do they understand that these signals are intended to convey a meaningful message? A first step in the investigation involved figuring out if dogs share "the same basic structures for emotion" as humans. "Animals can represent and communicate knowledge in nonverbal ways," but more is involved than just the structures. The connectivity between regions of the brain is also a determining factor in the level of consciousness and self-awareness of animals. By providing the "roadmap for the level of consciousness that is possible," animals as diverse as dogs, apes, and whales can understand spoken commands and hand signals. As pet lovers already know, such experiments confirm that dogs also recognize and respond to body language that indicates the emotional states of other dogs and humans. The author explains that his purpose in writing this book is "to raise awareness of the mental lives of the animals with whom we share the planet." In that, he succeeds. An impressive overview of modern neurology and the still-unanswered issues raised by our treatment of our fellow living creatures.

Kirkus Reviews