'That means the canine brain responses were being triggered by something distant in space and time. It shows that dogs' brains have these mental representations of us that persist when we're not there.'

The university’s experiment - the first of its type - involved 12 dogs of various breeds who underwent brain scans while five different scents were placed in front of them.

The scent samples came from the subject itself, a dog the subject had never met, a dog that lived in the subject's household, a human the dog had never met, and a human that lived in the subject's household.

The familiar human scent samples were taken from someone else from the house other than the handlers during the experiment, so that none of the scent donors were physically present.

The results showed that all five scents elicited a similar response in parts of the dogs' brains involved in detecting smells. Responses were significantly stronger for the scents of familiar humans, followed by that of familiar dogs.

The findings, which were published in the journal Behavioural Processes, showed that dogs reacted strongest to the scent of a familiar human even when they were not there.

Pets trained as help or therapy dogs showed greater brain activity than the other dogs in the test.

Researchers say the findings could improve the way animals who assist wounded veterans or disabled people are selected.

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