<story><title>Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/dogs-remember-names-toys-years-study-pets-memory</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>petepete</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve had my Labrador for 12 years, she was about 1 when we rescued her.&lt;p&gt;In the first week I was walking her and passed a bus stop mainly used by school kids. There&amp;#x27;s a small wall behind it and she dashed around and emerged with half a sausage roll hanging out of her mouth.&lt;p&gt;To this day, every time we pass that spot she enthusiastically pulls and goes round to inspect.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>authorfly</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s cool but dogs remembering names is more insightful in an exciting way, let me elucidate on why it&amp;#x27;s pretty fascinating!&lt;p&gt;We know how place memories work quite well, Place and Grid cells specifically. There is a natural and almost physical level of 1:1 mapping at various scales[1] from location (based on different tracking systems - point integration, landmarks, your own steps) to activating cells in your brain. Simple co-activation alongside reward, like a literal map, sets down &amp;quot;good stuff here&amp;quot; signs in your brain.&lt;p&gt;Once attenuated and activated by Dopamine, the place cells to triangulate (at different &amp;quot;distances&amp;quot;) that position have basically fewer mechanims and binding opportunities for neurotransmitters to change upon other interaction(they have little input beside place + pleasure + pain), so they do not result in loss of their attenuation or association (part of why place stays longest in Alhzeimers patients association).&lt;p&gt;Memory of sounds however, isn&amp;#x27;t so clearly mappable, there is no obvious grid&amp;#x2F;comparable formulation of sound memories in any kind of &amp;quot;order&amp;quot; like there is with location and places in Place Cells. And clearly we humans forget many of the sounds we have heard (e.g. songs, lyrics). That&amp;#x27;s why it&amp;#x27;s quite interesting that dogs remember toys names for a long time. It makes you ask questions like &amp;quot;If we had less sounds&amp;#x2F;named things to remember, could we remember the ones we do remember for much longer, with less forgetting?&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;What is the difference between permanent, event and temporal memories?&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Could we resolve neurodegenerative diseases by modifying neurons to be longer lasting or impervious to future modification in strategic areas of the brain? Could be retain some learning?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rsb.org.uk&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;biologist&amp;#x2F;Features&amp;#x2F;Grid_mouse_diagram_large.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rsb.org.uk&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;biologist&amp;#x2F;Features&amp;#x2F;Grid_mouse_d...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Dogs can remember names of toys years after not seeing them, study shows</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/dogs-remember-names-toys-years-study-pets-memory</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>petepete</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve had my Labrador for 12 years, she was about 1 when we rescued her.&lt;p&gt;In the first week I was walking her and passed a bus stop mainly used by school kids. There&amp;#x27;s a small wall behind it and she dashed around and emerged with half a sausage roll hanging out of her mouth.&lt;p&gt;To this day, every time we pass that spot she enthusiastically pulls and goes round to inspect.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bionsystem</author><text>My grandfather&amp;#x27;s dog (some bastardized belgium shepherd) was annoyed at some electric cable hanging too low in some place where he would go for a walk ; after a storm the pylon fell a bit and he would jump up and bite the cable (which was isolated of course), and bark a lot at it.&lt;p&gt;Years later after everything was fixed, going to walk in this area the dog would always look up at this exact spot and bark a few times. Like &amp;quot;heck don&amp;#x27;t you dare coming low again I&amp;#x27;m watching you&amp;quot;.</text></comment>