DOGS HAVE MORE

BRAIN POWER THAN CATS

Dogs are significantly brainier than cats, according to a new study. While cats have around 250 million cortical neurons — brain cells linked with intelligence — dogs have some 530 million. Cortical neurons are involved with thinking, planning and other complex behaviours associated with intelligence. “How many neurons you have in your cerebral cortex, I believe, is a major determinant of your biological capabilities,” said Vanderbilt University neuroscientist Dr Suzana Herculano-houzel, one of the study’s co-authors. Dr Herculanohouzel developed the method for accurately measuring the number of neurons in brains. “I’m 100 per cent a dog person,” admitted Dr Herculano-houzel. That bias aside, she said these findings suggested dogs had the capacity to do “much more complex and flexible things with their lives than cats can.” In a Royal Society journal article published last year, neuroscientists Professor Ursula Dicke and Professor Gerhard Roth stated that the number of cortical neurons “comes to mind quite naturally” when searching for a “neurobiological basis of intelligence.”

“At the least, we now have some biology that people can factor into their discussions about what’s smarter, cats or dogs,” said Dr Herculano-houzel. Besides cats and dogs, Dr Herculano-houzel and her collaborators also measured the brains of hyenas, lions, bears, mongooses and raccoons.