There’s a new twist to the perennial argument about which is smarter, cats or dogs.
It has to do with their brains, specifically the number of neurons in their cerebral cortex: the ‘little grey cells’ associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior — all considered hallmarks of intelligence.
The first study to actually count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, including cats and dogs, has found that dogs possess significantly more of them than cats.
“In this study, we were interested in comparing different species of carnivorans to see how the numbers of neurons in their brains relate to the size of their brains, including a few favorite species including cats and dogs, lions and brown bears,” said Associate Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences Suzana Herculano-Houzel, who developed the method for accurately measuring the number of neurons in brains.
(Carnivora is a diverse order that consists of 280 species of mammals all of which have teeth and claws that allow them to eat other animals.)
The results of the study are described in a paper titled “Dogs have the most neurons, though not the largest brain: Trade-off between body mass and number of neurons in the cerebral cortex of large carnivoran species” accepted for publication in the open access journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.
As far as dogs and cats go, the study found that dogs have about 530 million cortical neurons while cats have about 250 million. (That compares to 16 billion in the human brain.)
“I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience,” Herculano-Houzel explained.
“I’m 100 percent a dog person,” she added, “but, with that disclaimer, our findings mean to me that dogs have the biological capability of doing much more complex and flexible things with their lives than cats can. At the least, we now have some biology that people can factor into their discussions about who’s smarter, cats or dogs.”
The study was funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation; the Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fund at Randolph-Macon College; the Vice Deanship of Research Chairs at the King Saud University; the National Research Foundation of South Africa; and Brazilian crowdfunding contributors.
Read more: https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2017/11/29/grumpy-cat-study-dogs/
Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt.
See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.
source
Im gonna use this for my science article
"The researchers say the number of neurons in an animal's cerebral cortex is a hallmark of intelligence."
Is that a conclusion? Well, wrong. You better do more research. I met some humans that are dumber than a doornail. And, try to get a dog to use a litter box.
Nope, sorry, this is BS. It is true that dogs have more neurons, but that really does not make a difference in this case. Humans have 16 billion of them but even people with that many can still be incredibly dumb. Dogs are like humans and have a curve of intelligence. It is just that 98% of them are on the completely dumb side of it (despite the number of neurons). Cats on the other hand have far better problem solving skills and fart better cognitive applications.
While there are some cat that do the equivalent of staring at a wall and barking, not nearly as many compared to the percentage of dogs. Cats are smarter, and just because dog lovers can't admit that fact and will do anything to try and say otherwise, doesn't change that reality.
Will be the first cat defender of what should be many:
Spent long timespans around dogs and cats. Based on personal experience, interaction and observation, this is hard to believe.
Possible dog cortical neuron count is artificially inflated by domestic breeding and not as flexible as a similar count that evolves to encompass the full range of mammalian thought and behavior
Just check out Nora the Piano Playing Cat video on YouTube. It's not a fake circus or 'clever mare' trick. Rather it's a remarkable sensory experience the cat is having as it comes to understand in real time that the individual keys produce different pitches.
Have never ever seen a dog come close to this complex display of sensory pleasure and manual dexterity, demonstrating a rich appreciation of sound and the tactile feel of piano keys
Love dogs, but they're filthy beasts. They can't even clean themselves. Cats at least are self-cleaning.
“I’m 100% a dog person,” Herculano-Houzel said….
Enough said. You disqualified yourself within a seconds.
How did you overcome existing scientific research on this matter? Is this meaning you`re right and all the previous was wrong? All the previous researches points that dog has about 160,000,000 neurons and cats about 300,000,000. At what point cats lost their 50,000,000 and dogs gained another 400,000,000 and how?
For years we’ve been told that cats have 300 million neurons to dogs only having 160 million in their cerebral cortex. Now we’re told that cats only have 250 million neurons and dogs have well over 530 million? Something’s not right here. There’s quite a discrepancy between these numbers. In my personal experience I’ve always found cats to be far more intelligent than dogs. Trainabilty does not necessarily mean more intelligence. It should also be considered that cortical studies on cats hasn’t been studied all that much. The main reason being that they often refuse to participate in tests. Trying to get a cat to do it what you want it to is very difficult. A study out of Japan in January determined that cats were as intelligent as dogs. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38665057 Beside if we were to take what this woman says as gospel then the long finned pilot whale should be the smartest animal on earth.
Meanwhilst my cat is smarter then the dog we are babysitting 10 fold.
HMM
I read the Vanderbilt University article which stated, "The researchers analyzed the brains of one or two specimens from each of eight carnivoran species: ferret, mongoose, raccoon,cat, dog, hyena,lion and brown bear." A study with only one or two specimens per species and you publish the findings? Here is an example as to why scientific conclusions are never conclusive.