The ways dog and human brains function are apparently a lot more similar than once thought, suggests new research out of Hungary.

Researchers there devised a way to examine how canines are able to sense emotion in human voices.

After training eleven dogs to remain still inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, otherwise known as an MRI, scientists from the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group recorded brain activity in the dogs, as they listened to about 200 human and dog sounds, including crying and laughing.

A group of humans were then hooked up to a scanner and put through similar paces.

According to a study published in the Feb. 20 edition of the journal Current Biology, the human and dog subjects responded to stimuli quite similarly, showing the greatest reactions when hearing sounds from individuals of their own species.

The research indicated that when both the humans and dogs heard what they identified as happy sounds, they experienced increased activity in the primary auditory sensory systems.

On the other hand, or paw, as it were, the study recognized dogs respond to non-vocal queues much more than humans tended to.

"In this first comparative neuroimaging study of a non-primate and a primate species, we made use of this special combination of shared environment and evolutionary distance," the Hungarian team wrote in a release that detailed their study.

"This method offers a totally new way of investigating neural processing in dogs," lead researcher Attila Andics was also quoted saying in the release. "At last we begin to understand how our best friend is looking at us and navigating in our social environment."

The research team reasoned that if the brains of both species have similar structures, they could conceivably handle social stimuli in many of the same ways -- which could at least partially explain why humans and dogs often share such close bonds.

Scientists assert a part of the brain controlling voice and speech developed in a common ancestor of humans and dogs approximately 100 million years ago and development similarities were passed down through the generations, even as the genetic lines of human beings and dogs greatly diverged over time.

The scientific team admitted dogs usually can stay in one place long enough to complete MRI scans -- which is why the four-legged study subjects were rewarded throughout the experimentation process with edible treats and lots of petting.