But then the brain scans showed something novel: The dogs were making distinctions between fear and anger, and fear and sadness, showing they can tell the difference between somewhat nuanced negative emotions . “As far as we know, it’s the first time there is proof that dogs can distinguish between faces expressing two [similar] emotions,” said Laura V. Cuaya, a co-author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the SCAN-Unit, University of Vienna…..…The researchers ran a whole-brain analysis to look at patterns of response for those three negative emotions. “We found that in a different part of the brain, there can be a distinction between fear and anger and between fear and sadness,” Cuaya said. She added that there did not seem to be a difference in processing between sadness and anger. The researchers stressed that these findings do not mean dogs understand or experience emotions in the same way humans do.