No, Cats Are No More Intelligent Than Dogs!
Are dogs smarter than cats? It seems that science has now found an answer to this question. In this article, you will learn the result of one of the greatest controversies in animal history.
Are dogs smarter than cats? The number of neurons is important
A publication in the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy confirms that the cortex of dogs has twice as many neurons as that of cats. The group of scientists responsible for this discovery is made up of researchers from six different universities. They come from the United States, Denmark, Brazil, and South Africa.
The professor responsible for the method for quantifying brain neurons of a species is Professor Suzana Herculano-Houzel. According to the scientist, the first step in determining an approximate number is to turn the brain into soup, as it is then easier to isolate the cell nuclei of the neurons and calculate their number.
Intelligence measurement and the number of neurons in the brain
A neuron is the basic unit of information processing. A living being’s cognitive capacity is directly related to the number of neurons it has. According to Herculano-Houzel, the quantitative factor is key:
Their discoveries are based on the application of the so-called “soup method”, in which the cerebral cortex of dogs is turned into “soup”. The cerebral cortex is the nerve tissue that covers the two halves of the brain and is only a few millimeters thick. This organic tissue, commonly referred to as “gray matter”, is essential to our decision-making process.
This area of the brain is particularly relevant because it processes external stimuli that living beings receive through sight and touch.
Are dogs more intelligent than cats?
To arrive at this conclusion , the neurologist Herculano-Houzel and her team examined three brains: that of a cat, one of a golden retriever, and another of a small mixed breed dog.
Because of the large differences between breeds of different sizes, the researcher used two dog brains. She discovered that the cerebral cortex of both dogs contained 500 million neurons and the cat’s brain contained only 250 million. It can therefore be concluded that dogs are more intelligent than cats.
The researchers analyzed the brains of eight different carnivores to provide a basis for comparison. To do this, they examined samples from ferrets, mongooses, raccoons, cats, dogs, hyenas, lions and brown bears.
Based on the results, the researchers came to the conclusion that the intelligence of dogs is comparable to that of raccoons and lions. While cats only have an intelligence comparable to that of bears. Everyone has 16 billion neurons in their brain. And thus he is also more intelligent than other living beings. The species that follows it in terms of intelligence is the elephant with 5.6 billion neurons.
Another hypothesis that has yet to be proven
The research group also tried to confirm the hypothesis that the brains of carnivorous species have more cortical neurons than those of herbivores. However, the scientists could not confirm this hypothesis because they did not find any major differences in the correlation of the neuron size of the animals.
They explained this by the fact that the stress the herbivores are exposed to has probably caused them to develop their brain capacity further. The reality is that larger carnivores are usually the ones that have fewer neurons. For example, a bear’s brain is 10 times larger than a cat’s, but they both have the same number of neurons.
On the other hand, the case of the raccoon surprised the scientists. Although its brain is the same size as a cat’s, it contains as many neurons as a dog’s. A raccoon has a higher number of neurons than the average of other animals in the same family.
Regardless of all of this interesting research, one thing is certain: both dogs and cats can be excellent lifelong companions for humans. Unfortunately, cat lovers now have one less argument in their favor!
