Study Finds Dogs Are Brainier Than Cats (vanderbilt.edu)

Science_afficionado writes: Are you a cat lover? A dog lover? If so, you may be interested in the first scientific study to actually count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, including cats and dogs. Bottom line: Dogs have about twice as many of these "little grey cells" as cats. These "little gray cells" are associated with thinking, planning and complex behavior. The study found that dogs have about 530 million cortical neurons while cats have about 250 million. (For comparison, the human brain has 16 billion.) Another interesting discovery was that carnivores have about the same ratio of neurons to brain size as that of herbivores, "suggesting that there is just as much evolutionary pressure on the herbivores to develop the brain power to escape from predators as there is on carnivores to catch them," reports Vanderbilt University. "The study's findings also challenge the prevailing view that domesticated animals have smaller brains than their wild cousins. The ratios of brain size to body weight of the domestic species they analyzed -- ferret, cat and dog -- did not scale in a significantly different manner from those of their wild relatives -- mongoose, raccoon, hyena, lion and brown bear."

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.

Comments

They may have more cells...

[MoarSauce123]

...but cannot do their business on their own in a designated spot (cats can do that) and are inept to spend a few days alone (no problem with cats). I have come across many dumb dogs that bark constantly for no reason, but at least as many clever cats. More cells does not make one smarter.

Re:They may have more cells...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can train a dog to use a litter box, most people just don't care to bother. And I've never in my entire life ever met a cat I'd classify as "clever". Sneaky, greedy, sadistic, but nothing that indicated exceptional brain power. Contrast with dogs: We have seeing eye dogs, and guard dogs, and drug sniffing dogs, and herding dogs, and search and rescue dogs - all very complicated jobs that require (for an animal) pretty high intelligence.

Also, although I prefer not having to constantly plan around my cat's loneliness that's actually a pretty good indicator it's not that bright. High socialization needs are part of the package deal of having a big, think-y brain. It's why solitary confinement is basically torture for humans, while a bearded lizard would not give a single fuck.

I don't really like dogs myself, they slobber everywhere and are too in your face. Plus cats are far cuter. But come on. Anyone who's surprised dogs are the smarter species hasn't been paying attention.

Re:Seriously?

[amalcolm]

Does that mean I get smarter as I lose weight?

Re:What about the various cat/dog breeds

[jellomizer]

Different breeds may be smarter then others. But that is due to us breeding them for different traits.
However I doubt that there is a huge variation. As often traits that we equate to being smart for a dog, doesn't always require more brain power.
As the article points out wild animals seem to be brainier, however a wolf doesn't have a lot of traits that we equate to intelligence that our pet dog has.
For examples Dogs can understand the abstract concept of pointing, while wolves cannot. Dogs can be taught a lot of tricks and behaviors that may be outside their normal instinctive behavior, while wolves do not. However Dogs bark and make a lot of noise, and are much more disorganized in hunting by themselves, which would put them at a disadvantage in a non-human world. Dogs and Humans had created a symbiotic relationship. So the Dog has evolved to at least react to our weird abstract concepts, in a way that pleases us, they do not really understand the concept of being tethered, but they realize there is a boundary and past that us humans needs to be with them.

Re:Border Collie

[hierofalcon]

I've never seen a cat skeleton in a tree either.

Re:What about the various cat/dog breeds

[Talderas]

Of course he doesn't know what he's talking about. He has no understand or grasp of how dog intelligence is consistently ranked. Dog intelligence can be identified and ranked on instinctual intelligence, adaptive intelligence, and working/obedience intelligence. The latter is how much time it takes to teach a dog a new command as well as how often the dog responds to the command the first time once taught it. Wolves aren't necessarily intelligent on that last ranking system. Human don't frequently value the instinctive or adaptive intelligences because they're not related to the tasks for which we've bred them however some breeds of dog are incredibly adaptively intelligence (Siberian huskies) and capable of solving problems on their own. Many of the most intelligent breeds by most obedience rankings aren't required to also have strong problem solving intelligence and that may be an undesirable trait when it comes to breeding a working dog.