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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.
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.
Cat lovers, cower in the corner with tails between your legs.
Next battle to settle: vi vs emacs.
Social complexity seems to be a driver for intelligence. Hyena society is quite complex with clans and a dominance hierarchy within each clan. Hyenas seem to have theory of mind and seem to practice tactical deception. Hyenas are also good cooperative problem solvers, outperforming primates.
...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.
Does that mean I get smarter as I lose weight?
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
My dog runs 200 times to fetch a stick I throw, my cat gives me the 'fuck you' look the very first time and goes for a nap.
they can't be trained because they're rather stupid
How well can you be trained ? Would you be able to obey simple commands such as sitting on the ground, or fetching a ball, in return for being told you're such a good boy ?
Ever seen people play sports? You're disproving your own point here.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
I've never seen a cat skeleton in a tree either.
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.
As someone who has owned a wolf in the past, I can assure you that you don't know what you are talking about. I was able to train him to sit, stay, heel, lay down and come in less than half a day. I never saw anything quite like it. I could also point at damn near anything and tell him to get it, and he would bring it to me. This included flies that got into the house. On the occasion that one would land out of his reach (basically the ceiling) he would sit and wait for it to move again. I just wish he would have taken them to the trash can rather then bring them to me.
He was a great companion rather than a pet, but I would never think about doing that again as they are much more independent thinking than a dog. If there was someone or something he felt was a threat, it didn't matter what I said, he wanted to kill it. There were two occasions that I caught him mid air going for someones throat. After that I made sure to keep him away from anyone that he didn't like. He would also pin people to the floor if they moved around me in a threatening manner. Two things that I never quite figured out were why he hated bicycles and anyone having a gun other than myself. If anyone carried a gun onto my property, he would take it and bring it to me.