Dogs Are Twice as Smart as Cats, Says Brain Comparison Study

Se ^ | 1 Dec, 2017 | Jen Viegas

[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.”

[Chgogal]

I am so very happy for you. Give them a big hug from me, then give the a treat and then tell them, “Don't ever do that again!!!!”

: )

[CrimsonTidegirl]

Already done:) You can’t imagine my joy when I saw them outside my window. I was looking out the windows and doors about every five minutes, lol.

A few months ago, when the remnants of Hurricane Harvey came through Alabama, a tornado touched down at the edge of my backyard and damaged my neighborhood. There are still downed trees in the area. It seems like they wander a little more since the tornado.

A neighbor, who lives a few houses down, owns several dogs. Before the tornado, we couldn’t see her house from ours, but now we can. My dogs may have found some new friends:) They are very friendly.

We thought that after they were fixed that they would stay home. They did calm down after they were fixed but they still have their spells.

Thanks for your kind words and prayers! I will definitely hug them for you:) I love them so much.

Again, thanks!