Cat intelligence is the capacity of the domesticated cat to solve problems and adapt to its environment. Research has shown that feline intelligence includes the ability to acquire new behavior that applies knowledge to new situations, communicating needs and desires within a social group and responding to training cues.
The brain of the domesticated cat is about five centimetres (2.0 in) long and weighs 25–30 g (0.88–1.06 oz). [1] [2] If a typical cat is taken to be 60 cm (24 in) long with a weight of 3.3 kg (7.3 lb), then the brain would be at 0.91% [3] of its total body mass, compared to 2.33% [3] of total body mass in the average human. Within the encephalization quotient proposed by Jerison in 1973, [3] values above one are classified big-brained, while values lower than one are small-brained. [4] The domestic cat is attributed a value of between 1–1.71 (for comparison: human values range between 7.44–7.8). [1] [3]
The largest brains in the family Felidae are those of the tigers in Java and Bali. [5] It is debated whether there exists a causal relationship between brain size and intelligence in vertebrates. Most experiments involving the relevance of brain size to intelligence hinge on the assumption that complex behavior requires a complex (and therefore intelligent) brain; however, this connection has not been consistently demonstrated. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
The surface area of a cat's cerebral cortex is approximately 83 cm2 (13 in2); furthermore, a theoretical cat weighing 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) has a cerebellum weighing 5.3 g (0.19 oz), 0.17% of the total weight. [11]
According to researchers at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, the physical structure of the brains of humans and cats is very similar. [12] The human brain and the cat brain both have cerebral cortices [13] with similar lobes. [14] [ failed verification ]
The number of cortical neurons contained in the brain of the cat is reported to be 203 million. [15] Area 17 [16] of the visual cortex was found to contain about 51,400 neurons per mm3. [17] [18] Area 17 is the primary visual cortex. [19]
Feline brains are gyrencephalic, i.e. they have a surface folding as human brains do. [20] [21]
Analyses of cat brains have shown they are divided into many areas with specialized tasks that are vastly interconnected and share sensory information in a kind of hub-and-spoke network, with a large number of specialized hubs and many alternative paths between them. This exchange of sensory information allows the brain to construct a complex perception of the real world and to react to and manipulate its environment. [22]
The thalamus of the cat [23] [24] includes a hypothalamus, [25] an epithalamus, a lateral geniculate nucleus, [26] and additional secondary nuclear structures.
The domestic cat brain also contains the hippocampus, [27] amygdala, [28] frontal lobes (which comprise 3 to 3.5% of the total brain in cats, compared to about 25% in humans), [29] [30] corpus callosum, [31] [32] anterior commissure, [33] pineal gland, [34] caudate nucleus, septal nuclei and midbrain. [35]
Grouse et al. (1979) ascertained the neuroplasticity of kittens' brains, with respect to control of visual stimulus correlated with changes in RNA structures. [36] In a later study, it was found that cats possess visual-recognition memory, [37] [38] and have flexibility of cerebral encoding from visual information. [39]
A cognitive support diet for felines is a food that is formulated with the aim of improving mental processes like attention, short and long-term memory, learning, and problem solving. There is currently no strong evidence that such diets are effective in improving cognitive function. Claims for cognitive support appear on a number of kitten formulations to help with brain development, as well as diets aimed at seniors to help prevent cognitive disorders. These diets typically focus on supplying Omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, taurine, vitamins, and other supporting supplements that are considered to have positive effects on cognition.[ citation needed ]
The omega-3 fatty acids are a key nutrient in cognition for felines. They are essential for felines as they cannot be synthesized naturally and must be obtained from the diet. [40] Omega-3 fatty acids that support brain development and function are alpha-linolenic acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). [40] Fish oils, fish and other marine sources provide a very rich source of DHA and EPA. [40] Alpha-linolenic acid can be acquired from oils and seeds. [40]
Omega-6 fatty acids are also often included in feline cognition diets.[ citation needed ] The important omega-6 fatty acid that plays a role in brain support and cognition is arachidonic acid. [41] Arachidonic acid, or AA, is found in animal sources such as meat and eggs. [41] AA is required in cat diets, as felines convert insignificant amounts of it from linoleic acid due to the limited enzyme delta-6 desaturase. [42] Like DHA, arachidonic acid is often found in the brain tissues of cats and seems to have a supporting role in brain function. [41] In a 2000 study completed by Contreras et al., it was found that DHA and AA made up 20% of the fatty acids in the mammalian brain. [43] Arachidonic acid makes up high amounts in the membrane of most cells and has many pro-inflammatory actions. [42]
Taurine is an amino acid, which is essential in cat diets due to their low capacity to synthesize it. Taurine has the ability to cross the blood–brain barrier in the brain, it plays a role in many neurological functions, especially in the visual development. [44] Without taurine, felines can have an abnormal morphology in the cerebellum and visual cortex. [44] When cats were fed a diet deficient in taurine, this led to a decrease in the concentration of taurine in the retina of the eye. This resulted in deterioration of the photoreceptors, followed by complete blindness. [45]
Choline is a water-soluble nutrient that prevents and improves epilepsy and cognitive disorders. [46] Supplementation is part of therapy for cats with seizures and feline cognitive dysfunction, despite this treatment being mostly based on anecdotal evidence and research done on dogs. [47] It is the precursor to nerve chemicals like dopamine and acetylcholine, making it important for proper functioning of the nervous system. [46]
The WAIS test is a measure of intelligence in adult Homo sapiens . The test scores on four criteria: verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory and processing speed. [48] [49]
In controlled experiments, cats showed that they had fully developed concepts of object permanence, meaning that sensorimotor intelligence is completely developed in cats. For human infants, tests involving multiple invisible displacements of an object are used to assess the beginning of mental representation in the sixth and last stage of sensorimotor intelligence. The cats' searches on these tasks were consistent with representation of an unsensed object and fully developed sensorimotor intelligence. [50] [51]
In 2009, an experiment was conducted where cats could pull on a string to retrieve a treat under a plastic screen. When presented with one string, cats had no trouble getting the treats, but when presented with multiple strings, some of which were not connected to treats, the cats were unable to consistently choose the correct strings, leading to the conclusion that cats do not understand cause and effect in the same way that humans do. [52] [53]
In wild cats, such as lions, selective pressures have demonstrated that these animals exhibit extensive long-term memory in relation to problem-solving for at least seven months after solution. [54] However, relationships with humans, individual differences in intelligence, and age may all affect memory. Cats easily adapt to their current environment because they can adapt their memories of past environments throughout their life. [55] [56]
The period during which the cat is a kitten is the time when the cat learns and memorizes survival skills, which are acquired through observation of their mothers and playing with other cats. Playing, in fact, constitutes more than fun for a kitten, for it is essential for ranking social order, building hunting skills, and for generally exercising for the adult roles. [57]
The older the cat, the more these changes can affect its memory. There have been no studies done on the memories of aging cats, but there is some speculation that, just like people, short-term memory is more affected by aging. [58] In one test of where to find food, cats' short-term memory lasted about 16 hours.[ citation needed ]
Edward Thorndike conducted some key experiments on cats' learning capacity. In one of Thorndike's experiments, cats were placed in various boxes approximately 20 in × 15 in × 12 in (51 cm × 38 cm × 30 cm) with a door opened by pulling a weight attached to it. The cats were observed to free themselves from the boxes by "trial and error with accidental success." [59] [60] Though cats did perform worse on occasion, Thorndike generally found that as cats continued the trials, the time taken to escape the boxes decreased in most cases. [61]
Thorndike considered the cat to follow the law of effect , which states that responses followed by satisfaction (i.e. a reward) become more likely responses to the same stimulus in the future. [60] [59] Thorndike was generally skeptical of the presence of intelligence in cats, criticising sources of the contemporary writing of the sentience of animals as "partiality in deductions from facts and more especially in the choice of facts for investigation." [62]
An experiment was done to identify possible observational learning in kittens. Kittens that were able to observe their mothers performing an experimentally organised act were able to perform the same act sooner than kittens that had observed a non-related adult cat, and sooner than the ones who, being placed in trial and error conditions, observed no other cat performing the act. [63] [64] [65]
An experiment was done to study detour problem solving skills in companion cats and dogs using a transparent fence. Cats show no effect of trial-and-error learning compared to dogs. If cats recognize both sides of the obstacle represent as an equally solvable task, they freely change their spatial approach to solve the task. [66]
Cat intelligence study is mostly from consideration of the domesticated cat. The process of domestication has allowed for closer observation of cat behaviour and in the increased incidence of interspecies communication, [67] [68] and the inherent plasticity of the cat's brain has become apparent as the number of studies in this have increased scientific insight.[ citation needed ]
Changes in the genetic structure of a number of cats have been identified. [69] [70] This is as a consequence of both domestication practises and the activity of breeding, so that the species has undergone genetic evolutionary change due to human selection. [69] [70] This human selection has been coupled with an initial, naturally occurring selective set of cats, possessing characteristics desirable for the sharing of human habitation and living in Neolithic urban environments. [71]
Cats' intelligence may have increased during their semi-domestication: urban living may have provided an enriched and stimulating environment requiring novel adaptive behaviours. [72] This scavenging behaviour [73] would only have produced slow changes in evolutionary terms, but such changes would have been comparable to the changes to the brain [74] of early primitive hominids who co-existed with primitive cats (like, for example, Machairodontinae, Megantereon and Homotherium) and adapted to savannah conditions. [75] [76] [77] [78]
The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. In vertebrates, a small part of the brain called the hypothalamus is the neural control center for all endocrine systems. The brain is the largest cluster of neurons in the body and is typically located in the head, usually near organs for special senses such as vision, hearing and olfaction. It is the most energy-consuming organ of the body, and the most specialized, responsible for endocrine regulation, sensory perception, motor control, and the development of intelligence.
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, but some theorists consider the two forms of memory distinct, assuming that working memory allows for the manipulation of stored information, whereas short-term memory only refers to the short-term storage of information. Working memory is a theoretical concept central to cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience.
A kitten is a juvenile cat. After being born, kittens display primary altriciality and are fully dependent on their mothers for survival. They normally do not open their eyes for seven to ten days. After about two weeks, kittens develop quickly and begin to explore the world outside their nest. After a further three to four weeks, they begin to eat solid food and grow baby teeth. Domestic kittens are highly social animals and usually enjoy human companionship.
Computational neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand the principles that govern the development, structure, physiology and cognitive abilities of the nervous system.
The brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sense organs, and making decisions as to the instructions sent to the rest of the body. The brain is contained in, and protected by, the skull bones of the head.
The claustrum is a thin sheet of neurons and supporting glial cells, that connects to the cerebral cortex and subcortical regions including the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus of the brain. It is located between the insular cortex laterally and the putamen medially, encased by the extreme and external capsules respectively. Blood to the claustrum is supplied by the middle cerebral artery. It is considered to be the most densely connected structure in the brain, and thus hypothesized to allow for the integration of various cortical inputs such as vision, sound and touch, into one experience. Other hypotheses suggest that the claustrum plays a role in salience processing, to direct attention towards the most behaviorally relevant stimuli amongst the background noise. The claustrum is difficult to study given the limited number of individuals with claustral lesions and the poor resolution of neuroimaging.
The auditory cortex is the part of the temporal lobe that processes auditory information in humans and many other vertebrates. It is a part of the auditory system, performing basic and higher functions in hearing, such as possible relations to language switching. It is located bilaterally, roughly at the upper sides of the temporal lobes – in humans, curving down and onto the medial surface, on the superior temporal plane, within the lateral sulcus and comprising parts of the transverse temporal gyri, and the superior temporal gyrus, including the planum polare and planum temporale.
Cat food is food specifically designed for consumption by cats. As obligate carnivores, cats have specific requirements for their dietary nutrients, namely nutrients found only in meat, such as taurine, arginine, and Vitamin B6. Certain nutrients, including many vitamins and amino acids, are degraded by the temperatures, pressures and chemical treatments used during manufacture, and hence must be added after manufacture to avoid nutritional deficiency.
Encephalization quotient (EQ), encephalization level (EL), or just encephalization is a relative brain size measure that is defined as the ratio between observed and predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, based on nonlinear regression on a range of reference species. It has been used as a proxy for intelligence and thus as a possible way of comparing the intelligence levels of different species. For this purpose, it is a more refined measurement than the raw brain-to-body mass ratio, as it takes into account allometric effects. Expressed as a formula, the relationship has been developed for mammals and may not yield relevant results when applied outside this group.
A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an organism acts and when the organism observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Mirror neurons are not always physiologically distinct from other types of neurons in the brain; their main differentiating factor is their response patterns. By this definition, such neurons have been directly observed in humans and primate species, and in birds.
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is an omega-3 fatty acid that is a primary structural component of the human brain, cerebral cortex, skin, and retina. It is given the fatty acid notation 22:6(n-3). It can be synthesized from alpha-linolenic acid or obtained directly from maternal milk, fatty fish, fish oil, or algae oil. The consumption of DHA contributes to numerous physiological benefits, including cognition. As the primary structural component of nerve cells in the brain, the function of DHA is to support neuronal conduction and to allow optimal function of neuronal membrane proteins.
In developmental psychology and developmental biology, a critical period is a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli. If, for some reason, the organism does not receive the appropriate stimulus during this "critical period" to learn a given skill or trait, it may be difficult, ultimately less successful, or even impossible, to develop certain associated functions later in life. Functions that are indispensable to an organism's survival, such as vision, are particularly likely to develop during critical periods. "Critical period" also relates to the ability to acquire one's first language. Researchers found that people who passed the "critical period" would not acquire their first language fluently.
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping or neural oscillation. Other forms of neuroplasticity include homologous area adaptation, cross modal reassignment, map expansion, and compensatory masquerade. Examples of neuroplasticity include circuit and network changes that result from learning a new ability, information acquisition, environmental influences, practice, and psychological stress.
The evolution of human intelligence is closely tied to the evolution of the human brain and to the origin of language. The timeline of human evolution spans approximately seven million years, from the separation of the genus Pan until the emergence of behavioral modernity by 50,000 years ago. The first three million years of this timeline concern Sahelanthropus, the following two million concern Australopithecus and the final two million span the history of the genus Homo in the Paleolithic era.
Comparative cognition is the comparative study of the mechanisms and origins of cognition in various species, and is sometimes seen as more general than, or similar to, comparative psychology. From a biological point of view, work is being done on the brains of fruit flies that should yield techniques precise enough to allow an understanding of the workings of the human brain on a scale appreciative of individual groups of neurons rather than the more regional scale previously used. Similarly, gene activity in the human brain is better understood through examination of the brains of mice by the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Brain Science, yielding the freely available Allen Brain Atlas. This type of study is related to comparative cognition, but better classified as one of comparative genomics. Increasing emphasis in psychology and ethology on the biological aspects of perception and behavior is bridging the gap between genomics and behavioral analysis.
Biological motion is motion that comes from actions of a biological organism. Humans and animals are able to understand those actions through experience, identification, and higher level neural processing. Humans use biological motion to identify and understand familiar actions, which is involved in the neural processes for empathy, communication, and understanding other's intentions. The neural network for biological motion is highly sensitive to the observer's prior experience with the action's biological motions, allowing for embodied learning. This is related to a research field that is broadly known as embodied cognitive science, along with research on mirror neurons.
Environmental enrichment is the stimulation of the brain by its physical and social surroundings. Brains in richer, more stimulating environments have higher rates of synaptogenesis and more complex dendrite arbors, leading to increased brain activity. This effect takes place primarily during neurodevelopment, but also during adulthood to a lesser degree. With extra synapses there is also increased synapse activity, leading to an increased size and number of glial energy-support cells. Environmental enrichment also enhances capillary vasculation, providing the neurons and glial cells with extra energy. The neuropil expands, thickening the cortex. Research on rodent brains suggests that environmental enrichment may also lead to an increased rate of neurogenesis.
A senior cat diet is generally considered to be a diet for cats that are mature, senior, or geriatric. Nutritional considerations arise when choosing an appropriate diet for a healthy senior cat. Dietary management of many conditions becomes more important in senior cats because changes in their physiology and metabolism may alter how their system responds to medications and treatments.
In general, cognitive support diets are formulated to include nutrients that have a known role in brain development, function and/or maintenance, with the goal of improving and preserving mental processes such as attentiveness, short-term and long-term memory, learning, and problem solving. Currently, there is very little conclusive research available regarding cat cognition as standardized tests for evaluating cognitive ability are less established and less reliable than cognitive testing apparatus used in other mammalian species, like dogs. Much of what is known about feline cognition has been inferred from a combination of owner-reported behaviour, brain necropsies, and comparative cognitive neurology of related animal models. Cognition claims appear primarily on kitten diets which include elevated levels of nutrients associated with optimal brain development, although there are now diets available for senior cats that include nutrients to help slow the progression of age-related changes and prevent cognitive decline. Cognition diets for cats contain a greater portion of omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as well as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and usually feature a variety of antioxidants and other supporting nutrients thought to have positive effects on cognition.
As Kitty ages, his brain function will decline. Feline cognitive dysfunction is a disease similar to Alzheimer's in humans. It is caused by deterioration of the brain itself, leading to reduced cognitive functioning. A cat with this condition has trouble getting around, because he becomes disoriented easily.
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