Be kind to dogs—it could make you smarter.
Stroking and petting a dog increases activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, where we do our thinking and conceptual reasoning.
This positive effect carries on long afterwards too, researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland discovered when they tested the positive effects of petting a dog.
The 19 participants sat with the dog and petted it, and then did the same with a stuffed animal—but changes in the brain cortex were seen only when the real dog was stroked.
PLOS ONE, 2022; 17: e0274833; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274833
