Posted on 12/05/2017 7:36:59 PM PST by MtnClimber
Dogs and raccoons are among the most intelligent animals on Earth, according to a new investigation of mammal brains.
ntelligence is hard to define in humans, but much less in other animals. One reason is that all species have evolved to be as “smart” as is necessary for their survival. In fact, some of the most populous animals on the planet have relatively unimpressive brains. “Mice have tiny brains with few neurons and, if asked, they would certainly say that they're doing very well, thank you,” Suzana Herculano-Houzel of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute told Seeker. Dogs have average-sized brains, so when Herculano-Houzel and her colleagues recently compared them to those of other mammals, they were shocked by the resulting data. It turns out that dogs have about twice the number of cerebral cortex neurons as cats. “To put our findings into context: we humans have twice the cortical neurons that gorillas have,” said Herculano-Houzel, whose work on primates is outlined in the book The Human Advantage. “So, our new study provides reason to expect that dogs have the biological capability for much more complex and flexible behavior than cats do.”
She explained that there is a direct correlation between total numbers of cortical neurons and intelligence, given that neurons are the information-processing units in the brain. She added that the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that can combine information from different sources and create new associations, recognize patterns, make decisions to act differently based on past experience, and start to make predictions for the future. “For that reason,” she continued, “whatever species has the most neurons in the cerebral cortex is therefore expected to be capable of more complex and flexible behavior.”
(Excerpt) Read more at seeker.com ...
Doggie article.
Dogs good.
Raccoons bad.
Something only an academic could believe...
Dogs are smart.
Cats are sneaky smart.
Wow lots of ‘Dogs are smarter than cats’ posts in the last few days. You’d almost think cats were them thar stupid Trump voters, and dogs were woke.
I’ve never seen a cat eating dog poop.
Oh boy, then why can’t dogs bury their own shit?
Be careful, very careful. You’ve just ignited a quasi-religious war between canophiles and felophiles, a conflict almost as irreconcilable as the 30 Years War. Indeed a fanatical felophile might even try a Gunpowder Plot against you. Take care to secure and patrol all entrances to your basement.
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.
I’ve never believed the old adage that cats are smarter than dogs.
Cats are obtuse.
That’s because they are sneaky...
My cat disagrees.
Having owned both, cats never seemed all that bright to me. I can understand liking them better than dogs as animals or pets, but saying they’re more intelligent than dogs seems absurd.
My property is patrolled by four big dogs and they are backed up by uncle Mossberg.
Yeah but my cat can beat up my chesapeake.
And in other news: while dogs distracted their owners the cats killed them.
This study is a bit overblown. There are other categories of intelligence and there are likely alternative adaptations in different animals that increase intelligence. Biology is a messy analog system and you can’t say because one biological trait has an advantage that whatever species has it iare superior.
All this time I thought our Chow was a Dog.
She is dumber than a Box of Barbara Boxers unless Food is part of the equation.
Wait a minute...
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