“Since aging is known to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, we are keen to investigate the genetic background of aging,” Dávid Jónás, the lead author of the study and the researcher at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary told This Dog’s Life.

“It is worth mentioning that the genetic factors contributing to aging are of special interest when compared to the environmental factors (e.g. nutrition, healthcare, or physical activity), since the former ones cannot be changed as quickly and efficiently as the latter.”

Jónás and his team analyzed the DNA sequences of two dogs aged 22 and 27. They discovered mutations not noticed in dogs with an average life span. The senior dogs had longevity genes linked to cell death regulation, blood pressure regulation, and nervous system development.

The team is currently looking for six to eight more dogs who’ve reached a certain old age. You can visit their project if you happen to have an elderly dog that fits the criteria.

The post New Study Shows the Reason Why Some Dogs Live Longer Than Others appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The Canadian researchers gathered 6,329 participants who watched 20 video clips featuring cats that react to positive or negative events. Most of the clips were gathered from Youtube, while some came from people from the university. Most of the participants were women and cat owners. The study shows that in 59% of the cases, people correctly guessed a cat’s mood. In other cases, humans were pretty clueless about what cats were experiencing.

What do you think, how well would you score?

The post Cats Express Emotions, But We’re Not Really Good at Reading Them appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

But this 2016 study shows them in a different light — there’s one thing in which they are very like humans and it’s pretty unexpected. The study conducted in Berlin, Germany found that rodents respond to tickling similarly to humans, by “producing noises and other joyful responses.”

The researchers spent three years studying the rats’ behavior when tickled. They found that the rats giggled and laughed and sometimes even chased the hand that was tickling them, looking for more.

The experiment was about more than just figuring out how rats react to tickling. The researchers hoped it would shed light on brain activity in humans that creates emotions associated with tickling. What they found is that the joy and laughter can happen when the somatosensory cortex — the area that responds to touch — is stimulated.

The main reason why rats and other rodents are often used for lab testing is that they resemble humans in their behavior and genetics.

The post A Study Shows That Rats Are Ticklish appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The study has been conducted at Sweden’s Linkoping University. “Dogs are quite good at understanding humans,” says senior author Lina Roth. “They’re definitely better at understanding us than we are at understanding them.”

The study included 58 pairs of dogs and their owners – 33 Shetland sheepdogs and 25 border collies. The owners were required to fill in questionnaires about their and their dog’s personalities and mental health.

Roth and her colleagues measured concentrations of cortisol in the owner’s hair and the dog’s fur over several months and concluded that anxious owners tend to make their dogs anxious as well. The opposite didn’t happen – anxious dogs don’t make their owners any more anxious.

The post Your Dog Can Absorb Stress From You appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

“Since aging is known to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, we are keen to investigate the genetic background of aging,” Dávid Jónás, the lead author of the study and the researcher at the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary told This Dog’s Life.

“It is worth mentioning that the genetic factors contributing to aging are of special interest when compared to the environmental factors (e.g. nutrition, healthcare, or physical activity), since the former ones cannot be changed as quickly and efficiently as the latter.”

Jónás and his team analyzed the DNA sequences of two dogs aged 22 and 27. They discovered mutations not noticed in dogs with an average life span. The senior dogs had longevity genes linked to cell death regulation, blood pressure regulation, and nervous system development.

The team is currently looking for six to eight more dogs who’ve reached a certain old age. You can visit their project if you happen to have an elderly dog that fits the criteria.

The post New Study Shows the Reason Why Some Dogs Live Longer Than Others appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The Canadian researchers gathered 6,329 participants who watched 20 video clips featuring cats that react to positive or negative events. Most of the clips were gathered from Youtube, while some came from people from the university. Most of the participants were women and cat owners. The study shows that in 59% of the cases, people correctly guessed a cat’s mood. In other cases, humans were pretty clueless about what cats were experiencing.

What do you think, how well would you score?

The post Cats Express Emotions, But We’re Not Really Good at Reading Them appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

But this 2016 study shows them in a different light — there’s one thing in which they are very like humans and it’s pretty unexpected. The study conducted in Berlin, Germany found that rodents respond to tickling similarly to humans, by “producing noises and other joyful responses.”

The researchers spent three years studying the rats’ behavior when tickled. They found that the rats giggled and laughed and sometimes even chased the hand that was tickling them, looking for more.

The experiment was about more than just figuring out how rats react to tickling. The researchers hoped it would shed light on brain activity in humans that creates emotions associated with tickling. What they found is that the joy and laughter can happen when the somatosensory cortex — the area that responds to touch — is stimulated.

The main reason why rats and other rodents are often used for lab testing is that they resemble humans in their behavior and genetics.

The post A Study Shows That Rats Are Ticklish appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.

The study has been conducted at Sweden’s Linkoping University. “Dogs are quite good at understanding humans,” says senior author Lina Roth. “They’re definitely better at understanding us than we are at understanding them.”

The study included 58 pairs of dogs and their owners – 33 Shetland sheepdogs and 25 border collies. The owners were required to fill in questionnaires about their and their dog’s personalities and mental health.

Roth and her colleagues measured concentrations of cortisol in the owner’s hair and the dog’s fur over several months and concluded that anxious owners tend to make their dogs anxious as well. The opposite didn’t happen – anxious dogs don’t make their owners any more anxious.

The post Your Dog Can Absorb Stress From You appeared first on Our Funny Little Site.